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SIGMA  PUBLISHING  CO.,  210  Pine  St., 
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THE 

BIOCOSMOS 


The   Processes  of  Life 
Psychologically  Ordered 


BY 

DENTON  J.  SNIDER 


ST.  LOUIS.  MO. 

SIGMA  PUBLISHING  CO. 

210  PINE  ST. 

(For  sale  by  A.  C.  M'Clurj?  &  Co.,  Booksellers.  Chicago, 
to  whom  the  trade  is  referred.) 


BIOLOGY 
LIBRARY 

G 


NIXON-JONES  PRINTING  Co.,  215  PINE  STREET,  ST.  Louis 


CONTENTS 

OF  THE 

BIOCOSMOS 


PAGE. 

GENERAL  INTRODUCTION. 

CONCERNING  EVOLUTION     .       •    ^-  5 

NATURE'S  ORIGIN        .       .     '  /    V  9 

NATURE'S  EVOLUTION         .     :•;•••      .  14 

EVOLUTION  OF  EVOLUTION      j  .       .  24 

THE  PHYSICAL  AND  THE  PSYCHICAL  29 

THE  HUMAN  FORM     '-.       .       .       .  37 

PRELIMINARY  TO  BIOCOSMOS     .       .       .  54 

PART  FIRST— THE  CELLULAR  BIOCOSMOS  117 

CYTOLOGY    .      ,.      '..•'.       .       .  130 

PATHOLOGY  .       .       .       .       *       .  160 

HYGIOLOGY  .       .       .       •       :       .171 

PART  SECOND— THE  PARTICULARIZED 

BIOCOSMOS    .       .       .       .       .       .  183 

PLANT-LIFE          .       .       .       .       .  195 

FORMATION       .              ,              .  197 

ASSIMILATION    .       .       .               .  216 

GENERATION                                   .  227 

(iii) 


iv  CONTENTS. 

PAGE. 

ANIMAL-LIFE  .  -  265 

FORMATION  .  .  f  279 

ASSIMILATION  .  .  •  •  297 

GENERATION 327 

EARTH-LIFE  .  .  .  .  .361 

FORMATION  .  .  .  .  .373 

ASSIMILATION  .  .  .  .  .  381 

GENERATION  .  .  .  .  .  >  389 

PART  THIRD— THE  HISTORICAL  BIOCOSMOS  402 

DARWIN'S  BIOGRAPHY         .       .       .  429 

BEFORE  DARWIN  AND  AFTER     .       .  430 

RETROSPECT  AND  PROSPECT       .       .  450 


GENERAL  INTRODUCTION. 


CONCERNING  EVOLUTION. 

Charles  Darwin,  supreme  biologist  of  all 
time,  and  as  we  title  him,  the  Hero  of  the 
Biocosmos,  replying  to  certain  objectors  who 
caviled  at  his  use  of  scientific  terms,  replies : 
"It  is  difficult  to  avoid  personifying  the  word 
Nature, ' '  and  he  seemingly  does  not  try  very 
hard  to  overcome  the  difficulty.  But  why  does 
the  mind  instinctively  speak  of  Nature  as  a 
person,  thus  endowing  it  with  a  psychical 
element?  Does  this  belong  to  Nature,  or  is  it 
forced  upon  the  same  from  the  outside  by 
ourselves  1  Here  indeed  we  touch  the  deepest 
problem  of  Nature — a  problem  which  she  is 
always  bringing  up  to  the  surface.  Darwin 
in  the  same  passage  goes  on  to  say:  "I  mean 

(5) 


iv  CONTENTS. 

PAGE. 

ANIMAL-LIFE  .  .265 

FORMATION  .  -    279 

ASSIMILATION  .  .297 

GENERATION 327 

EARTH-LIFE  .  .361 

FORMATION  .  ..               -    373 

ASSIMILATION  . 
GENERATION 

PART  THIRD— THE  HISTORICAL  BIOCOSMOS  402 

DARWIN'S  BIOGRAPHY         .  .  429 

BEFORE  DARWIN  AND  AFTER     .       .  430 

RETROSPECT  AND  PROSPECT       .       .  450 


GENERAL  INTRODUCTION. 


CONCEENING  EVOLUTION. 

Charles  Darwin,  supreme  biologist  of  all 
time,  and  as  we  title  him,  the  Hero  of  the 
Biocosmos,  replying  to  certain  objectors  who 
caviled  at  his  use  of  scientific  terms,  replies : 
"It  is  difficult  to  avoid  personifying  the  word 
Nature/'  and  he  seemingly  does  not  try  very 
hard  to  overcome  the  difficulty.  But  why  does 
the  mind  instinctively  speak  of  Nature  as  -a 
person,  thus  endowing  it  with  a  psychical 
element  ?  Does  this  belong  to  Nature,  or  is  it 
forced  upon  the  same  from  the  outside  by 
ourselves  ?  Here  indeed  we  touch  the  deepest 
problem  of  Nature — a  problem  which  she  is 
always  bringing  up  to  the  surface.  Darwin 
in  the  same  passage  goes  on  to  say:  "I  mean 

(5) 


,«\  g  :/?##  :mo$9S]%QS— GENERAL  INTRODUCTION. 

by  Nature  only  the  aggregate  action  and  pro- 
duct of  many  natural  laws,  and  by  laws  the 
sequence  of  events  as  ascertained  by  us."  A 
collection  of  natural  laws  apparently  self-ex- 
ecuting is  Nature  according  to  the  conscious 
definition  of  Darwin.  So  he  proceeds  to  think 
himself  rid  of  the  intrusive  personifying  ten- 
dency in  his  exposition  of  his  science.  But 
Nature  herself  some  how  refuses  to  be  treated 
in  that  impersonal  way,  except  perchance 
by  little  fragments.  Now  we  hold  that  the 
instinctive  procedure  of  Darwin  as  naturalist 
is  far  truer  and  deeper  than  his  expressed  in- 
tention; the  naive  observer  in  him  is  a  much 
greater  man  than  the  definer  or  metaphy- 
sician. 

In  the  same  connection  he  takes  occasion  to 
reply  to  the  animadversions  upon  his  use  of 
his  pivotal  category,  Natural  Selection,  a  term 
whose  easiest  meaning  is  Selection  by  Nature. 
This  certainly  indicates  that  Nature  proceeds 
by  some  sort  of  choice  involving  Will.  Dar- 
win speaks,  of  the  objectors  who  say  that  "the 
term  Selection  implies  conscious  choice  in  the 
animals  which  become  modified,  and  it  has 
even  been  urged  that  as  plants  have  no  voli- 
tion, Natural  Selection  is  not  applicable  to 
them."  Certainly  lower  animals  and  plants 
are  not  conscious,  are  not  Egos;  still  they 
have  a  psychical  element  in  Life,  and  there 


CONCERNING   EVOLUTION.  7 

is  the  selection.  But  Darwin  throws  up  the 
sponge:  "In  the  literal  sense  of  the  word,  no 
doubt,  Natural  Selection  is  a  false  term," 
and  so  again  he  seeks  to  eliminate  the  psychi- 
cal implication  of  his  own  great  vocable: 
"Natural  Selection  is  the  preservation  of 
favorable  individual  differences  and  varia- 
tions, and  the  destruction  of  those  which  are 
injurious. ' '  Thus  he  thinks  he  has  eliminated 
that  insidious  personal  equation  which  has 
already  given  him  so  much  bother.  Still  it 
remains  and  must  ever  remain,  for  it  is  not 
merely  his  own,  or  subjective,  but  it  has  its 
counterpart  in  Nature  herself.  Another  com- 
plaint he  utters  in  the  same  paragraph:  "It 
has  been  said  that  I  speak  of  Natural  Selec- 
tion as  an  active  power  or  deity, "  that  is,  as 
a  supreme  Person  ruling  all  living  things, 
vegetal  and  animal.  Better  and  more  pro- 
phetic it  would  have  been  to  make  Evolution 
a  kind  of  God  dominating  Darwin  and  the 
whole  Nineteenth  Century. 

It  is  not  often  that  we  can  catch  Darwin 
examining  the  ultimate  categories  by  which 
he  does  his  thinking.  On  the  whole  he  picks 
them  up  without  criticism,  for  which  he  evi- 
dently had  little  taste  or  aptitude.  Still  his 
instinct  for  the  right  word  is  correct ;  Natural 
Selection  must  be  deemed  a  very  happy  term 
which  helped  make  the  fortune  of  the  author's 


g     THE  BIOCOSMOS— GENERAL  INTRODUCTION. 

theory.  Only  when  nagged  by  captious  ob- 
jectors, would  he  seek  reasons  for  his.  verbal 
usage  (as  may  be  seen  in  the  above  pas- 
sages) ;  which  reasons  in  our  opinion  do  not 
strengthen  his  cause.  Natural  Selection  as  a 
term  has  more  truth  in  it  and  more  virility 
than  Spencer 's  phrase  for .  the  same  thing : 
"the  survival  of  the  fittest, "  though  Darwin 
himself  seems  to  accept  the  latter  as  a  kind  of 
synonym.  It,  too,  seeks  to  obliterate  the  psy- 
chical side  of  the  process,  and  thus  shows  a 
pallid,  rather  soulless  expression. 

Now,  the  foregoing  trouble  in  the  greatest 
biological  book  of  the  ages  (see  The  Origin  of 
Species,  Chapter  IV)  has  continued  down  to 
the  present,  and  is  by  no  means  yet  overcome. 
That  unwelcome  psychical  intruder  shows 
himself  a  sort  of  marplot  in  the  onward  march 
of  biology,  and  cannot  be  put  out.  As  his  pres- 
ence is  always  manifested  in  life  from  the 
lowest  to  the  highest  forms,  our  purpose  is  to 
acknowledge  hini,  not  merely  as  an  alien 
guest,  but  as  a  rightful  possessor,  in  our  Bio- 
cosmus,  which  must  have  in  every  stage  and 
shape  the  twin  elements,  the  physical  or  ma- 
terial and  the  psychical,  both  being  joined  to- 
gether in  an  immediate  inseparable  unity 
which  constitutes  the  living  thing,  from  the 
lowest  cell  to  the  highest  organism. 

Still  one  cannot  help  asking  about  the  func- 


NATURE'S  ORIGIN.  Q 

tion  of  this  psychical  element  in  Nature.  In 
its  final  aspect  it  is  the  connecting  principle 
between  all  her  separated  forms  millionfold, 
for  Nature  in  her  outward  appearance  is  sep- 
arative, from  the  invisible  atom,  electron  or 
etherion,  to  the  largest  star  or  nebula.  Now, 
the  bond  of  connection  between  all  these  di- 
versified portions  of  the  physical  universe  is 
psychical,  or  mental,  if  you  wish.  The  word 
Nature  implies  some  kind  of  unity  or  common 
ground  of  generalization,  which  underlies  its 
every  division.  To  know  Nature  truly  is  to 
unify  all  her  differences.  Still  further,  we  are 
not  going  to  rest  till  we  ask:  What  is  the 
source  of  this  psychical  activity  which 
streams  through  the  whole  phenomenal  world 
and  joins  it  to  the  universal  fountain-head? 

I. 

NATURE'S  ORIGIN'. 

Many  a  scientist  in  these  days  has  remarked 
on  the  tendency  of  Natural  Science,  supposed- 
ly so  concrete,  to  become  abstract  and  meta- 
physical. During  the  present  century  it 
burst  forth  in  a  reaction  against  speculative 
Philosophy,  especially  in  Germany;  but  it  is 
getting  to  be  quite  as  speculative  as  any  Phi- 
losophy. This  movement  is  in  the  order  of 
evolution,  we  hold;  it  shows  Nature  striving 


10  THE  BIOCOSMOS— GENERAL  INTRODUCTION. 

to  get  back  to  its  origin  in  the  Universe  which 
can  only  be  a  thought,  or  more  adequately 
stated,  the  universal  psychical  process  of 
mind.  This  point  we  shall  unfold  somewhat. 
Nature  is  a  part  of  a  greater  whole,  yea 
ultimately,  of  the  greatest  whole,  of  the  very 
All  itself.  And  every  part  of  Nature,  or  part 
of  the  part,  even  to  the  least,  must  be  a  part 
of  this  All.  So  we  may  grasp,  in  an  external 
way,  the  divisions  of  the  physical  world.  To 
this  view  we  can  now  add  the  reflection  that 
every  part  of  a  Whole,  in  order  to  be  such 
part,  must  have  the  process  of  that  Whole. 
For  instance,  each  member  of  your  organism 
— hand,  arm,  foot — must  possess  the  organic 
process  of  the  entire  body;  thus  it  is  truly  a 
member.  Accordingly  every  minutest  par- 
ticle of  the  universe  presuppos'es  that  uni- 
verse, and  is  connected  with  the  same  in  the 
unseen  bond  which  we  call  the  psychical.  All 
true  science  as  universal  seizes  this  unitary 
principle  of  every  manifestation  of  Nature, 
and  carries  it  up  to  its  original  source,  which 
can  only  be  the  universe.  So  Natural  Science 
is  not  to  stop  with  knowing  the  particular  (as 
it  often  does).  Nature  can  be  known  only  by 
knowing  the  great  Whole  of  which  it  is  a  part, 
and  from  which  it  gets  its  ultimate  process. 
This,  too,  must  be  psychical,  a  fact  which  we 
may  look  into  for  a  little  while. 


NATURE'S  ORIGIN.  H 

Back  of  every  human  consciousness  lies 
more  or  less  distinctly  the  Great  Totality 
which  we  have  already  appealed  to  under  the 
name  of  the  Universe,  the  All.  This  concept 
is  verily  the  elemental  one,  beyond  which 
there  is  none  other;  we  might  call  it  by  anal- 
ogy the  primordial  mind-stuff  out  of  which 
every  Self  arises  and  becomes  an  individual. 
Of  this  origin  the  latter  always  carries  the 
mark  or  impress,  and  in  its  deepest  moments 
drops  back  into  its  genetic  source  which  is 
the  Universe,  whence  arises  man's  thought  as 
universal,  that  is,  bearing  the  stamp  of  the 
Universe.  When  the  mind  becomes  truly  cre- 
ative, it  re-enacts  the  creative  act  of  the  All, 
it  returns  to  and  shares  in  the  very  source 
and  genesis  of  its  own  being.  Such  is  the 
deepest  significance  of  man's  universality, 
though  he  be  merely  this  finite  individual. 

Now,  this  Universe  of  ours,  with  its  inti- 
mate relation  to  ourselves  has  long  excited 
the  interest  of  the  profound  sages  of  the  race, 
as  well  as  of  the  humbler  run  of  people.  Its 
primal  division  into  God,  Nature,  and  Man, 
is  familiar,  even  popular.  But  the  further 
reflection  is  not  so  well  known,  that  these 
three  form  a  process,  yea,  a  psychical  process, 
which  must  therefore,  be  prototypal  of  all  other 
processes,  being  the  universal  one,  just  that 
of  the  Universe  itself,  and  creative  of  the 


12  THE  BIOCOSMOS— GENERAL   INTRODUCTION. 

rest,  even  down  to  the  most  minute,  to  the 
microscopic  cell.  Accordingly  we  say  that 
the  Universe  has  three  divisions  primordially 
—God,  Nature,  Man,  and  that  these,  being 
psychical,  form  the  process  of  the  All-Self, 
who  creates  the  human  Self,  and  indeed  all 
created  things,  in  his  image  more  or  less  ap- 
proximate. It  is  necessary  to  designate  this 
supreme  originative  process  of  the  Universe 
by  a  special  term:  we  call  it  the  Pampsy- 
chosis. 

To  formulate  this  absolute  process  of  the 
one  Great  Totality,  fountain-head  of  all  cre- 
ation, has  been  the  work  of  the  loftiest  spirits 
of  mankind — for  instance  the  founders  of  the 
world's  dominating  Eeligions  and  Philoso- 
phies. These  have  sought  in  a  great  variety 
of  forms  and  vocables  to  bring  home  to  man 
this  ultimate  creative  process  of  the  All.  The 
result  is,  we  have  the  religious  Norm  and  the 
philosophical  Norm,  to  which  the  time  seems 
to  be  adding  a  third,  the  psychological  Norm 
—all  of  which  have'  one  and  the  same  content 
— the  Universe  (see  further  elaboration*  of 
this  subject  in  our  Ancient  European  Philos- 
ophy, Introduction). 

In  the  present  book,  Nature  is  treated  psy- 
chically. As  the  second  stage  or  phase  of  the 
All-Self  (Pampsychosis),  it  bears  everywhere 
in  its  divisions  large  and  small,  the  impress 


NATURE'S  ORIGIN.  13 

of  its  origin.  This  is  its  psychical  element, 
which  has  been  already  stated  to  be  the  con- 
necting principle  which  runs  though  all  the 
separate  forms  of  Nature  and  interlinks  them 
together  in  their  primordial  genesis.  Thus 
we  catch  a  glimpse  of  the  universal  science 
of  Nature — of  Nature  belonging  to  and  gen- 
erated by  the  Universe. 

Moreover  the  psychical  element  is  in  me  as 
Ego,  as  self-conscious,  whereby  I  come  to 
know  all  the  diversity  of  Nature  as  process, 
which  is  at  bottom  identical  with  mine ;  other- 
wise I  could  not  know  it.  Of  old  the  philos- 
opher observed  that  he  could  only  recognize 
his  own  in  cognizing  the  object.  That  is,  the 
process  of  his  Self  (or  Psychosis)  must  iden- 
tify Nature's  process  (or  Psychosis)  with 
his  own,  and  then  connect  it  with  the  genetic 
process  of  the  Universe  (the  Pampsychosis). 

In  this  connection  a  passage  from  one  of 
Darwin's  letters  is  significant  in  which  he 
acknowledges  that  it  is  "impossible  to  con- 
ceive this  immense  and  wonderful  universe 
including  man  with  his  capacity  of  looking 
far  backwards  and  far  into  futurity  as  the 
result  of  blind  chance  or  necessity."  Thus 
we  behold  the  great  scientist  summoning  be- 
fore himself  the  Universe  and  trying  to  ac- 
count for  it  in  some  way,  as  being  the  origin 
of  all  origins, l  i  including  man. ' '  Still  he  does 


14  THE  BIOCOSMOS— GENERAL  INTRODUCTION. 

not  invoke  it  (and  well  it  is  for  him  that  he 
does  not)  in  accounting  for  the  origin  of  the 
species,  his  unique  scientific  task  and  achieve- 
ment. Meanwhile,  however,  he  unfolds  and 
formulates  the  leading  category  of  his  age, 
and  plants  it  firmly  in  the  consciousness  even 
of  the  common  people — Evolution. 

So  there  is  some  thing  beyond  Darwin  ac- 
cording to  Darwin;  he  is  hut  a  stage  of  his 
own  principle  universalized;  Evolution  must 
evolve  also,  according  to  its  own  innermost 
logic,  and  become  a  part  or  constituent  of  a 
new  and  completer  Evolution. 

II. 

NATURE'S  EVOLUTION. 

At  present  the  trend  of  Natural  Science 
sweeps  toward  expanding,  applying,  and  in 
a  measure  reconstructing  the  Darwinian  the- 
ory of  Evolution.  It  has  been  carried  into 
fields  which  Darwin  knew  not  of,  and  trans- 
formed in  ways  of  _ which  he  probably  never 
dreamed;  it  has  been  made  universal,  it  has 
categorized  the  age,  it  has  builded  itself  into 
the  public  consciousness.  The  time  was  ready 
and  calling  for  its  true  utterance,  of  which 
various  forms  had  already  been  given  before 
Darwin.  These  voices  also  the  true-hearted 
listener  should  not  fail  to  hear. 


NATURE'S  EVOLUTION.  ]£ 

Darwinism  is  by  no  means  identical  with 
Evolution,  which  had  been  announced  long  be- 
fore the  time  of  Darwin  and  was  more  or  less 
secretly  fermenting  in  the  spirit  of  the  age. 
Still  it  is  more  profoundly  intergrown  with 
his  name  than  with  that  of  any  other  man. 
He  popularized  it,  injecting  it  into  the  deep- 
est current  of  the  folk-sou*  of  his  century. 
In  the  introduction  to  his  book  on  the  Origin 
of  the  Species,  he  has  given  a  brief  account 
of  some  anticipations  of  his  view,  which  puts 
stress  upon  Evolution  of  a  certain  kind, 
namely,  by  Natural  Selection,  the  Darwinian 
kind. 

The  Nineteenth  Century,  as  we  look  back 
at  it,  shows  its  own  peculiar  mental  bent,  its 
psychical  trend,  which  it  has  over  and  over 
again  in  diverse  ways  expressed  as  a  cate- 
gory of  thought.  This  category  is  the  afore- 
said Evolution,  which  is  strictly  a  philo- 
sophical term,  even  when  ejected  from  the 
mouth  of  a  philosophy-hating  scientist.  The 
Nineteenth  Century  (of  course  there  is  no 
need  of  adhering  strictly  to  its  yearly  bounds) 
was  evolutionary  in  its  highest  spiritual  ac- 
tivity as  well  as  in  its  supreme  self-expres- 
sion. In  Philosophy,  in  Poetry,  as  well  as  in 
Science,  it  has  found  utterance  through  the 
greatest  masterpieces  of  the  century.  Of  this 
fact  we  may  take  a  short  note. 


16  THE  BIOCOSMOS— GENERAL  INTRODUCTION. 

The  philosopher  proper  of  Evolution  is 
unquestionably  Hegel,  who  ranks  among  the 
greatest  of  his  guild.  His  first  important 
original  work  lay  in  the  domain  of  the  History 
of  Philosophy,  whose  systems  of  thought 
from  the  old  Greeks  down  to  his  time  were 
put  into  an  evolutionary  line  which  finally 
evolved  into  his  own  system  as  the  latest  and 
most  complete.  Thus  Hegel  quite  at  the  start 
of  the  century  (perhaps  a  little  before)  came 
into  possession  of  the  Evolution  of  Thought, 
which  indeed  may  be  deemed  the  ideal  pro- 
totype of  Evolution  marching  toward  realisa- 
tion during  the  ensuing  years.  Indeed  he  had 
extracted  it  from  its  long  antecedent  historic 
wrappage  and  revealed  it  in  its  pure  Forms 
or  Ideas,  as  well  as  in  its  inner  connection. 
In  the  introduction  to  the  foregoing  work 
(History  of  Philosophy)  it  is  significant  to 
notice  what  strong  and  repeated  stress  he 
puts  upon  Entwickelung  (Evolution),  as  if 
he  already  felt  the  pressure  of  the  new  spirit 
of  the  age  foj  its  pivotal  term  or  category. 
In  his  next  book  (Phenomenology,  1806)  he 
unfolds  the  method  in  tracing  the  subjective 
mind  through  its  stages  from  lowest  to  high- 
est. But  his  greatest  work  in  this  field  is  his 
Logic  (the  larger  one)  which  is  an  Evolution 
of  the  "pure  essences "  of  the  Absolute  Intel- 
ligence (of  the  Logos)  as  expressed  in  the 


NATURE'S  EVOLUTION.  Yl 

categories  of  Philosophy.  This  last  work 
has  taken  its  rank  as  one  of  the  supreme 
masterpieces  of  human  Thinking.  It  may  be 
regarded  as  the  unique  instance  of  Pure  Evo- 
lution, as  it  exists  in  the  Absolute  Mind  "  be- 
fore the  creation  of  Nature  and  finite  Man" 
(as  Hegel  puts  it  himself).  So  it  is  the  evolu- 
tionary Idea  going  in  advance  of  the  reality, 
which,  however,  is  soon  to  follow.  In  this 
fashion  Hegel  the  philosopher  proclaims  the 
Thought  of  the  Century  in  its  primordial  un- 
alloyed essence.  It  should  be  added  that 
Hegel  in  his  life  embodied  his  philosophic 
principle  of  Evolution,  for  he  has  very  dis- 
tinctly his  personally  evolutionary  period. 
Thus  he  biographically  as  well  as  philosophi- 
cally manifests  the  fundamental  character  of 
his  Century;  his  life  incarnates  his  thought. 
(For  a  fuller  view  of  this  phase  of  Hegel,  see 
the  essay  upon  him  in  our  Modern  European 
Philosophy,  especially  the  section  headed  The 
Evolutionary  Hegel,  p.  654,  etc.) 

Still,  Hegel,  philosopher  that  he  was, 
showed  his  inherent  limitation  in  the  matter 
of  Evolution  when  the  latter  was  to  incorpor- 
ate itself  in  Nature.  He  allowed  only  the 
ideal  Evolution,  which  determined,  as  it  were 
from  without,  all  the  shapes  of  the  physical 
world.  He  has  left  us  a  considerable  book 
on  The  Philosophy  of  Nature,  which*  amid 


18  THE  BIOCOSMOS— GENERAL  INTRODUCTION. 

many  profound  insights,  makes  us  conscious 
of  the  externality  of  his  method,  when  he  claps 
his  abstract  logical  categories  upon  the  pro- 
cesses of  Nature.  Not  so  many  years  before 
Darwin  he  declares  that  "the  rise  of  the  more 
developed  animals  out  of  the  lower  must  be 
rejected  by  the  thinker/'  Thus  he  denies 
Evolution  as  immanent  in  Nature,  it  holds 
with  him  only  of  Thought.  This  is  a  bad  mis- 
take of  Hegel,  which  Darwin  is  to  correct. 
Indeed  it  contradicts  Hegel  himself,  who 
therein  undermines  his  own  principle  of  Evo- 
lution as  universal.  Still  he  brings  sharply  to 
light  the  inherent  difficulty  of  every  Philoso- 
phy of  Nature,  which  applies  abstract  cate- 
gories externally  to  natural  processes.  It  may 
be  here  added  that  a  Psychology  of  Nature 
proceeds  in  a  very  different  way. 

Darwin,  therefore,  in  the  spiritual  move- 
ment of  the  century,  supplements  Hegel's  log- 
ical or  metaphysical  Evolution  with  organic 
or  biological  Evolution,  which  is  immanent 
in  Nature.  To  be 'sure,  Darwin  knew  nothing 
of  Hegel,  and  did  his  work  of  his  own  inner 
impulse  in  a  different  country  with  a  wholly 
different  environment.  Still  it  is  a  point  of 
supreme  interest  to  see  the  Spirit  of  the  Age 
uttering  itself  through  both,  though  in  dif- 
ferent ways  and  in  different,  yea  opposite 
spheres.  The  sphere  of  the  one  was  the  Cre- 


NATURE'S  EVOLUTION.  ^9 

ative  Idea  or  the  Absolute  Mind;  the  sphere 
of  the  other  was  Nature;  yet  both  had  ulti- 
mately the  same  thought,  the  deepest  of  the 
Century,  and  both  spoke  even  the  same  word 
— Evolution,  which  was  now  to  manifest  it- 
self in  every  stage  of  fhe  universal  Norm, 
already  described.  So  we  may  say  that  the 
time  had  come  when  the  Universe  itself  must 
reveal  its  evolutionary  phase,  which  is  to  re- 
main the  spiritual  heritage  of  the  race.  It 
should  be  added  that  Darwin  by  no  means 
traversed  the  whole  field  of  Nature,  but  con- 
fined himself  chiefly  to  its  organic  stage,  nor 
did  he  exhaust  that.  At  present  there  is  in 
scientific  investigation  a  noteworthy  trend 
toward  inorganic  Evolution.  Darwin  also 
started  or  at  least  gave  a  new  impulse  to 
what  may  be  called  psychic  Evolution  in  Life, 
which  has  had  such  a  remarkable  development 
into  a  new  science  known  as  Physiological 
Psychology. 

Nor  should  we  forget  the  expression  of 
Evolution  in  the  realm  of  Poetry,  very  diverse 
in  form  from  Science  and  Philosophy. 
Goethe's  Faust  is  justly  regarded  as  the 
poetic  masterpiece  of  the  Century,  and  the 
latter 's  supreme  artistic  expression,  Goethe 
himself  as  scientist  is  deemed  one  of  the 
precursors  of  Darwin  in  organic  Evolution. 
But  he  was  essentially  the  poet  rather  than 


20  THE  BIOCOSMOS— GENERAL  INTRODUCTION. 

the  scientist.  In  the  First  Part  of  Faust  he 
has  set  forth  the  Evolution  of  Mephistophiles, 
' '  the  Spirit  that  denies, ' '  who  unfolds  through 
a  variety  of  shapes  starting  with  the  deny- 
ing Faust  and  concluding  with  the  appear- 
ance of  the  traveling  scholastic.  Nor  is  this 
the  only  case  of  the  Evolution  of  Forms  cor- 
responding to  internal  character,  in  the  poem, 
whose  adequate  interpretation  depends 
largely  upon  an  insight  into  this  fact. 

Interesting  by  way  of  comparison  with 
Faust  are  the  utterances  of  Tennyson  in  re- 
gard to  Evolution.  They  are  in  the  form  of 
external  reflections  rather  than  woven  into 
the  very  texture  of  the  poem,  as  we  find  in  the 
case  of  Goethe.  The  striking  lines  of  In 
Memoriam  have  been  often  cited: 

So  careful  of  the  type  she  seems, 
So  careless  of  the  single  life, 

alluding  to  Nature.    Then  comes  the  peculiar 
Darwinian  response: 

"So  careful  of  the  type!"  but  no 
From  scarped  cliff  and  quarried  stone 
She  cries :  "  A  thousand  types  are  gone : 
I  care  for  nothing,  all  shall  go." 

Such  is  the  negative  conclusion  of  Tenny- 
son, in  accord  with  his  theme  and  doubtless 


NATURE'S  EVOLUTION.  21 

with  his  character.  It  should  be  added  that 
Darwin  has  something  more  affirmative  than 
the  poet,  for  new  and  indeed  higher  types 
are  always  being  evolved  out  of  the  vanishing 
old  ones.  The  Origin  of  Species  was  pub- 
lished ten  years  later  (1859)  than  the  dated 
dedication  of  In  Memoriam;  so  the  Darwinian 
idea  was  in  the  air,  and  indeed  in  the  social 
circumstances  of  the  time. 

Philosophy,  Science,  and  Poetry  had,  there- 
fore, uttered  the  deepest  spiritual  trend  of 
the  century,  each  in  its  own  manner  and  in 
its  own  domain.  Hegel's  Logic,  Darwin's 
Origin  of  Species,  and  Goethe's  Faust  remain 
three  supreme  masterpieces  of  human  genius, 
belonging  to  one  period  and  expressing  one 
content  ultimately ;  three  very  different  voices 
we  may  well  deem  them,  but  all  proclaiming 
the  pivotal  message  of  their  time.  And  that 
is  the  reason  why  they  are  the  masterpieces 
of  the  century,  epoch-making  we  say,  but 
really  epoch-voicing.  They  tell  the  character 
and  designate  the  place  of  their  epoch  in  the 
unfolding  of  man  toward  his  goal.  What  we 
have  called  the  Pampsychosis  they  utter  in 
its  latest  temporal  manifestation.  The  uni- 
versal Spirit  speaks  through  all  of  them  its 
most  recent  evangel,  which  is  that  of  Evolu- 
tion. 

But  the  question  rises :  Is  this  the  last  word 


22  THE  BIOCOSMOS— GENERAL  INTRODUCTION. 

of  the  ages!  Is  Evolution  the  finality? 
Probably  not.  Undoubtedly  it  has  come  to 
stay ;  a  spiritual  treasure  once  gained  is  never 
wholly  lost.  Even  the  atom,  first  conceived 
and  stated  in  the  old  Greek  world,  has  found 
a  new  life  in  our  modern  science  after  a  mil- 
lennial subsidence.  Still  nobody  can  now  be 
satisfied  with  the  Universe  as  atomic,  except 
by  a  kind  of  reversion  to  the  thought  of  an 
age  long  since  past.  Such  relapses,  by  the 
way,  are  not  so  uncommon.  But  -the  problem 
is  whether  Evolution  itself  is  going  to  evolve 
and  thus  become  a  stage  of  itself.  Is  it  some- 
how to  transcend  itself  through  its  own  inner 
movement  and  bring  forth  something  quite 
different?  The  Eighteenth  Century  was  a 
negative,  revolutionary  Century,  battering 
down  the  past,  as  may  be  seen  in  its  acme  and 
most  typical  manifestation,  the  French  Eevo- 
lution.  But  it  evolved  quite  its  opposite,  the 
Nineteenth  Century,  which  is  essentially  posi- 
tive and  evolutionary,  conserving  and  renew- 
ing the  past,  yet' with  anarchic  and  destruc- 
tive seams  running  through  it  everywhere,  the 
inheritance  of  a  former  time.  If  Revolution 
evolved  Evolution — the  negation  undoing  it- 
self— what  will  Evolution  evolve  as  its  suc- 
cessor, perchance  in  our  Twentieth  Century? 

It  should  be  emphasized  here  that  Darwin 
more  than  any  other  man  made  Evolution  the 


NATURE'S  EVOLUTION.  £3 

conscious  possession  of  his  age.  Philosophy, 
especially  Hegel,  is  understood  only  by  the 
precious  few,  while  Poetry  hides  its  meaning 
in  the  outer  image  so  that  many  never  pene- 
trate to  the  soul  of  its  utterance — witness  for 
instance  the  vast  army  of  commentators  on 
Faust.  Nature's  Evolution,  accordingly,  has 
been  the  mediating  principle  of  the  age  for 
making  the  same  conscious  of  its  own  deepest 
thought,  aware  of  its  very  self ;  hence  springs 
the  present  dominating  significance  of  Nat- 
ural Science  in  comparison  with  Philosophy 
and  Poetry,  both  of  which,  however — and  let 
it  not  be  forgotten — deliver  the  same  mes- 
sage. This  is  what  the  complete  man  is  to 
hear  in  all  its  forms.  Darwin  is,  therefore, 
the  genius  of  Evolution,  who  brings  down  the 
Spirit  of  the  Age  to  the  people;  stated  in 
other  phrase,  he  mediates  the  Pampsychosis 
when  it  has  become  evolutionary,  with  the 
folk-soul,  of  the  Century.  Such  in  all  ages 
has  been  the  function  of  the  hero  or  genius ; 
and  as  Darwin's  field  was  mainly  biological, 
we  may  pedestal  him  the  hero  of  the  Bio- 
cosmos. 

Still  the  question  cannot  be  kept  down: 
What  after  Darwin?  What  is  Evolution  go- 
ing to  do  with  itself? 


24  THE  BIOCOSMOS— GENERAL  INTRODUCTION. 
III. 

EVOLUTION  or  EVOLUTION. 

Ultimately  Evolution  will  have  to  be  ap- 
plied to  itself,  if  it  be  truly  universal.  It- 
must  be  tested  at  last  by  its  own  principle, 
subsumed  under  its  own  law;  what  then  be- 
comes of  it?  And  the  author  of  Evolution 
we  have  to  consider  as  evolutionary  in  him- 
self, as  subject  to  his  own  process,  as  an  ex- 
ample of  his  own  work,  as  something  evolved. 

It  is  by  no  means  the  least  fact  of  Evolu- 
tion in  the  Nineteenth  Century  that  it 
evolves  its  evolver,  Charles  Darwin.  It 
makes  him  corporeally  appear  in  his  rise 
through  thousands  of  bodily  forms,  from  the 
lowest  to  the  highest,  after  the  procession  of 
untold  aeons,  possibly  a  hundred  million  of 
years,  if  we  may  dare  suppose  with  some 
scientists  that  life  on  our  planet  began  so 
long  ago.  It  is  no  wonder,  then,  that  such  an 
appearance  is  mightily  acclaimed  by  the  time. 
For  every  man  sees  now  his  true  genealogy— 
if  not  his  own  origin,  at  least  his  physical  his- 
tory; he  begins  to  understand  himself  organi- 
cally. Evolution  of  life  has  been  going  forward 
in  a  dumb  unconscious  way  for  all  these  mil- 
leniums ;  but  now  it  gets  a  voice  for  the  first 
time,  yea  an  historian  who  looks  back  and  in- 


EVOLUTION   OF  EVOLUTION.  £5 

dicates  the  stages  through  which  it  has  passed 
up  to  the  historian  himself.  Evolution,  there- 
fore, has  evolved  the  evolver  evolving  Evolu- 
tion, as  far  as  life  goes,  and  thus  shows  a 
cycle  of  present  completion. 

It  is  manifest,  however,  that  there  is  an- 
other and  deeper  act  here  than  the  physically 
evolutionary.  Darwin's  Ego  or  Mind  is  what 
returns  to  his  corporeal  starting-point,  and 
traces  the  organic  forms  till  he  comes  to  his 
own  organism.  That  psychical  return  lies 
outside  of  life,  yea,  outside  of  Evolution  in 
its  more  special  sense;  which,  however,  it 
grasps  and  describes.  What  is  its  place  and 
significance?  Just  here  we  may  glimpse  pos- 
sibly a  flash  of  the  coming  century  with  its 
own  doctrine  which  reaches  beyond  Evolution, 
though  including  it.  Darwin  consciously 
evolves  the  organic  world,  but  unconsciously 
has  evolved  his  Ego  performing  such  an  evo- 
lutionary act.  That  is  his  unique  achievement, 
and  makes  him  the  unique  man  that  he  is.  In 
his  work  of  Evolution  he  suggests  and  in- 
stinctively employs  something  greater  than 
Evolution,  great  as  it  is. 

We  must  inspect  the  inherent  character  of 
Evolution,  and  see  what  it  will  do  to  itself. 
It  takes  for  granted  an  immanent  principle 
in  Nature  which  projects  itself  into  a  line  of 
living  forms,  and  thus  manifests  itself  in  a 


26  THE  BIOCOSMOS— GENERAL  INTRODUCTION. 

kind  of  organic  ladder  from  bottom  to  top. 
But  we  have  to  inquire  after  this  formative 
energy  which  is  pre-supposed  in  Evolution: 
What  is  it  and  whence  comes  itt  What  could 
have  set  it  going  and  have  imparted  to  it  the 
general  tendency  to  rise  in  the  scale  of  excel- 
lence! Evolution  does  not  answer  such  a 
problem;  it  simply  assumes,  the  given  prin- 
ciple and  points  out  its  transformations.  Ac- 
cordingly something  lies  back  of  Evolution, 
propelling  it  onward,  and  for  the  most  part 
upward.  Darwin  in  spite  of  himself,  at  times 
even  under  his  spoken  protest,  introduces 
such  a  power,  usually  by  the  name  of  Nature 
or  Natural  Selection.  Evolution,  therefore, 
cannot  completely  evolve  itself,  it  has  to  in- 
voke an  energy  outside  itself  to  make  a  start, 
and  to  drive  it  on.  When  it  has  evolved  itself 
entirely  and  universally,  it  must  have  evolved 
its  pre-supposition,  that  which  originates  and 
performs  its  process.  Evolution  thus  shows 
itself  but  a  part  or  phase  of  a  greater  move- 
ment ;  through  its'  own  inner  dialectic  it  calls 
for  the  completion  of  itself.  When  Evolution 
reaches  the  end  which  returns  to  and  makes 
the  beginning,  when  it  has  evolved  the  prin- 
ciple which  starts  it  and  propels  it,  the  as- 
cending evolutionary  line  is  transcended,  and 
rounds  itself  out  into  a  cycle.  What  is  it  that 
has  this  self -returning  power? 


EVOLUTION  'OF  EVOLUTION.  £7 

Evolution  must  at  last  run  upon  its  secret 
demiurge  which  is  an  Ego  unfolding  and 
formulating  it  as  a  doctrine  or  as  the  funda- 
mental thought  of  an  epoch.  Such  an  Ego 
is  itself  an  evolution  of  the  ages  and  makes  its 
appearance  in  the  fullness  of  time.  The  Uni- 
versal Spirit  (or  the  Pampsychosis)  was  evo- 
lutionary in  the  Nineteenth  Century,  and 
manifested  itself  peculiarly  in  Darwin,  who, 
receiving  the  impress  of  his  period,  became 
also  evolutionary  and  uttered  the  supernal 
message  to  his  contemporaries. 

Such,  indeed,  is  the  function  of  the  Genius 
in  the  progressive  sweep  of  the  ages — he  is 
to  express  in  word  or  deed  the  spirit  of  the 
time  to  the  people,  who  are  dumbly  ready  for 
the  message.  The  Great  Man  of  the  period 
in  one  way  or  other,  is  the  mediator  between 
World-Spirit  and  the  Folk-Soul.  Be  he  polit- 
ical, literary,  scientific — soldier,  like  Caesar, 
statesman  like  Lincoln,  poet  like  Goethe,  biol- 
ogist like  Darwin — he  is  the  great  mediator 
of  his  epoch,  between  what  we  may  call  the 
upper  world  and  the  lower  world,  between  the 
universal  mind  in  its  movement  and  the  indi- 
vidual who  is  to  be  filled  with  and  to  become 
conscious  of  the  same — when  we  may  pass 
on  to  the  next  stage.  Darwin,  therefore,  is 
the  incarnated  Genius  of  the  Century,  more 
than  any  other  scientific  man;  biologist  he 


28  THE  BIOCOSMOS— GENERAL  INTRODUCTION. 

was  it  is  true,  but  he  had  the  power  of  making 
his  particular  science  universal,  of  causing 
his  special  category  (Evolution)  to  be  applied 
to  every  other  department  of  knowledge- 
history,  philosophy,  institutions,  and  finally 
even  theology. 

Of  course  there  can  be  heard  in  these  days 
the  anarchic  protest  against  the  work  of  the 
Genius  in  the  World's  History.  Lombroso 
and  his  disciples  have  sought  to  show  that 
the  Great  Man  of  the  Age  is  mostly  crazy; 
but  really  he  is  to  be  conceived  as  the  sanest 
person  of  his  time,  who  communes  with  and 
shares  in  the  universal  Keason  in  a  deeper 
sense  than  any  other  mind.  Just  on  this 
ground  he  may  be  thought  to  be  mentally  out 
of  order,  but  one  cannot  help  thinking  that  the 
man  who  deems  just  the  world-historical 
Genius  to  be  crazy  is  himself  the  crazier. 

Undoubtedly  Nature  had  long  been  evolv- 
ing, from  the  very  beginning  in  fact,  though 
without  the  presence  of  the  evolutionary  con- 
sciousness ;  but  it  is  now  made  conscious  of  its 
evolution  through  the  Ego  of  Darwin,  who 
thus  stands  at  a  grand  node  of  Nature's  un- 
folding. Man  was  indeed  conscious  or  self- 
knowing  long  before  the  Nineteenth  Century, 
many  thousands  of  years  doubtless;  still  he 
was  not  conscious  of  himself  as  evolved,  of 
his  evolutionary  principle.  But  the  fullness 


THE  PHYSICAL  AND   THE  PSYCHICAL.        29 

of  time  had  come  for  just  such  a  thought,  and 
it  was  Darwin  who  rendered  it  the  spiritual 
possession  of  the  race.  He  it  was  who  made 
us  aware  of  the  evolutionary  idea  of  the  All- 
Self  (Pampsychosis),  not  its  only  idea  by  any 
means,  still  one  of  its  ideas,  peculiarly  that  of 
his  epoch.  Darwin  was  truly  the  child  of  his 
time ;  he  could  not  have  done  his  task  in  any 
other  period  or  in  any  other  country  but  Eng- 
land ;  the  age  had  to  whisper  to  him  its  evan- 
gel and  the  folk-soul  had  to  be  prepared  for 
listening.  Whereof  something  will  be  told 
more  fully  in  a  later  chapter. 

IV. 

THE  PHYSICAL  AND  THE  PSYCHICAL. 

Repeatedly  has  it  been  expressed  that  Na- 
ture is  inherently  dual,  the  second  or  separ- 
ative stage  in  the  process  of  the  Universe. 
Evolution  manifests  this  dualism  in  its  own 
way,  perpetually  striving  to  overcome  it,  yet 
always  dropping  back  into  it  again.  Hence 
Evolution  has  the  appearance  of  a  struggle 
between  two  forces,  an  inner  and  an  outer, 
neither  of  which  can  altogther  conquer  the 
other. 

In  all  Life,  micro-organic  as  well  as  macro- 
organic,  in  the  smallest  unicellular  organism 
as  well  as  in  the  largest  multicellular  organ- 


30  THE  BIOCOSMOS— GENERAL  INTRODUCTION. 

ism,  the  two  elements  are  present,  physical 
and  psychical.  Moreover  their  presence  is  in 
every  part  or  point  of  the  vital  body,  wrought 
together  in  an  indissoluble  union,  which  will 
not  permit  one  to  exist  without  the  other. 
Body  is  in  the  soul  and  soul  is  in  the  body; 
their  unity  is,  as  we  say,  immediate.  Even 
if  the  one  be  essentially  determining  and  the 
other  essentially  determined,  neither  can  do 
without  the  other  and  exist.  To  be  sure,  we 
shall  find  that  the  psychical  element  will  reach 
a  stage  in  which  it  can  separate  from  its  em- 
bodiment and  be  self-determining  within  it- 
self ;  but  that  stage  is  beyond  Life,  transcend- 
ing indeed  Nature,  though  it  is  her  goal  and 
very  aspiration.  Such  is  the  deepest  dualism 
of  this  sphere  (the  Biocosmos),  its  two-sided 
oneness;  we  might  name  it  Life's  bi-lateral 
symmetry,  which  runs  through  every  plant 
and  animal.  The  two  sides,  however,  are  not 
simply  fixed  in  their  twoness  and  opposition; 
the  living  soul  is  always  getting  outside  in  the 
body,  and  the  living  body  is  always  getting 
inside  in  the  soul;  the  two  counter  concep- 
tions we  must  somehow  grasp  together:  the 
internal  keeps  externalizing  itself  and  the  ex- 
ternal keeps  internalizing  itself — this  is  the 
double  process  in  vital  action.  The  dualism 
of  Nature  is  always  present  in  Life,  but  is 
always  being  overcome, — from  which  view- 


THE  PHYSICAL  AND   THE  PSYCHICAL.        3^ 

point  we  may  again  see  that  the  Biocosmos  is 
the  third  or  ever-returning  stage  of  total 
Nature. 

When  we  seek  to  unfold  the  process  of  the 
cell,  as  a  nucleated  oft-dividing  mass  of  proto- 
plasm, the  activity  we  call  a  psychosis ;  that 
is,  its  genetic  movement  is  after  the  order  of 
the  Psyche,  which  thus  furnishes  the  typical 
form  of  life,  the  creative  energy,  and,  it  may 
be  added,  the  end  toward  which  the  vital 
world  or  Biocosmos  is  advancing.  The  psy- 
chosis is  the  basic  process  of  the  Self  Jjoth  as 
individual  and  universal,  and  is  that  secret 
but  very  active  determinant  of  the  cell  and  of 
all  Life  which  the  biologists  are  pursuing  with 
such  an  outlay  of  industry  and  talent.  The 
difficulty  with  it  is  that  it  cannot  be  coaxed 
to  show  itself  under  the  most  penetrating  mi- 
croscopic eye,  and  yet  is  present  and  on  duty. 
It  is  often  recognized  as  the  architectonic 
principle  in  the  living  organism — the  cunning 
artificer  who  is  ever  building  and  rebuilding 
the  outer  structure  according  to  his  idea.  But 
that  idea — how  can  we  catch  it  with  a  lens? 
Really  it  can  be  overtaken  only  with  our  own 
Psyche,  cognate  to  it,  and  able  to  unite  with 
it  just  in  its  process  which  is  also  psychical. 
To  be  sure,  Life's  Psyche  is  immanent  in  its 
material  shape,  is  one  with  its  physical  matrix 
as  we  see  in  the  cell.  The  psychosis  in  the 


32  THE  BIOC08MOS— GENERAL  INTRODUCTION. 

present  case,  therefore  is  the  organic  or  vital 
one,  not  as  it  is  in  itself;  when  the  Psyche  is 
its  own  matter  as  well  as  its  own  form,  we 
have  advanced  out  of  Biology  into  Psychology 
proper.  Still,  Psychology,  when  rightly 
grasped,  is  the  universal  science,  which  con- 
strues itself  and  all  other,  namely,  the  special, 
sciences,  having  in  itself  the  typical  and  in- 
deed genetic  form  of  them  all.  So  Biology 
as  a  special  science  is  not  only  psychical  but 
also  psychological ;  in  fact  it  is  the  immediate 
unity  of  the  physical  and  psychical  elements 
as  already  stated;  but  as  science  it  is  ulti- 
mately the  pure  psychosis,  seeing  and  form- 
ulating itself  in  Life's  particular  psychosis. 
So  fundamental  is  this  point  for  the  intel- 
ligent study  of  Nature  that  we  may  symbolize 
it  in  two  names,  one  of  which  has  been  already 
used:  Physis,  the  Greek  word  for  Nature, 
found  in  numerous  English  compound  words, 
and  Psyche,  the  Greek  word  for  Soul,  also 
well-knowninmany  derivatives.  These  two  per- 
sonified existences — we  may  for  the  nonce 
consider  them  as  Hellenic  Gods  like  Zeus  and 
Hera — have  joint  possession  of  our  Olym- 
pian Biocosmos,and  dwell  together  in  a  pecul- 
iar marriage,  their  children  being  every  form 
and  process  of  Life  and  partaking  of  the  fun- 
damental traits  of  both  parents.  The  lowest 
vegetable  form  as  well  as  the  highest  animate 


THE  PHYSICAL  AND   THE  PSYCHICAL.        33 

organism  show  the  twofold  strains  of  Physis 
and  Psyche,  though  in  very  different  grada- 
tions. These  twin  deities  are  completely  in- 
.tertwined  and  intergrown;  the  smallest  mi- 
croscopic cell,  yea,  the  least  granule  of  the 
protoplasmic  mass  of  the  cell  are  their  com- 
mon progeny,  and  manifest  their  common 
basic  character,  physical  and  psychical.  Still 
this  double  godhood  of  the  Biocosmos  is  deep- 
ly discriminated  within  itself,  the  twins  are 
very  different  from  each  other,  quite  opposites 
indeed.  .  Psyche  is  the  unseen,  the  arcjiitect- 
onic,  ultra-microscopical;  Physis  is  the  vis- 
ible, the  extended,  the  material  of  the  edi- 
fice furnished  from  the  outside  by  the  Cos- 
mos, which  is  also  in  its  way  psychical.  More- 
over, of  the  two  divinities,  Psyche  is  the  as- 
piring, the  limit-transcending,  also  the  con- 
troller of  its  mate  Physis,  who  is  heavy,  ter- 
restrial, unwinged,  and  furnishes  all  the  mi- 
crosopy  generously  to  the  scientist.  It  may 
be  added  that  Psyche  is  not  altogether  con- 
tented with  her  life-lot ;  she  feels  herself 
clogged  by  her  other  part,  though  also  divine ; 
she  longs  for  separation,  when  she  is  com- 
pletely self-controlled  and  autonomous — a 
state  which  she  will  yet  attain,  though  in  all 
Nature  this  remains  an  ideal  end.  Still  when 
she  has  gained  her  autonomy,  and  separated 
from  her  associate  she  will  feel  herself  finite, 


34  THE  BIOCOSMOS— GENERAL  INTRODUCTION. 

one-sided  in  fact,  and  will  have  a  recurrence 
to  his  presence,  for  Physis,  too,  belongs  to 
the  Universe. 

Now  it  is  this  Psyche  which  gives  the  chief, 
yea,  the  insurmountable  trouble  to  the  biolo- 
gist, always  pushing  into  his  horizon,  yet  al- 
ways escaping  him  when  he  tries  to  grip  her 
or  to  witness  her  secrets  with  that  cunning 
magnifying  eye  of  his.  At  present  biologi- 
cal division  seems  to  be  the  grand  mystery, 
springing  from  some  inscrutable  source;  the 
cell  divides,  the  nucleus  divides,  so  does  the 
nucleolus  and  the  protoplasmic  granule,  yea, 
even  the  hypothetical  biospore  (Weissmann), 
pangen  (Be  Vries),  biogen  (Verworn).  For 
the  self-separation  of  the  germinal  principle 
has  to  take  place:  but  why  and  whence! 

Of  course  such  an  ultimate  division  in  its 
source  carries  us  out  of  Life  to  its  determi- 
nant, which  is  psychical.  It  is  important  to 
note  in  this  connection,  that  Biology  has  be- 
gotten its  counterpart,  Physiological  Psychol- 
ogy— whose  title  couples  the  twin  elements 
already  mentioned,  Physis  and  Psyche.  This 
new  science  takes  for  granted  the  immediate 
unity  of  the  physical  and  psychical  elements 
in  the  total  evolution  of  Life  since  its  first 
appearance  on  our  planet.  The  outer  vital 
act  has  always  manifested  the  inner  psychic 
act,  so  we  behold  in  this  field  an  experimental 


THE  PHYSICAL  AND   TEE  PSYCHICAL.        35 

Psychology  of  the  laboratory,  which  is  to  wit- 
ness the  internal  procedure  of  Psyche  shown 
in  the  external  phenomena  of  Physis.  But  of 
course  this  Physio-psychology  cannot  be 
deemed  the  true  Psychology,  but  simply  pre- 
paratory. Still  it  has  its  significant  place  as 
the  counterpart  and  necessary  concomitant  of 
Biology,  which,  as  at  present  carried  on,  is 
quite  too  much  inclined  to  leave  it  out  and 
to  treat  the  vital  process  as  chemical  or  even 
electrical,  that  is,  as  diacosmical.  The  uni- 
tary science  must  be  bio-psychical,  and  has  to 
be  ordered  not  from  the  side  of  Natural 
Science  but  of  Psychology.  It  is  really  the 
Psyche  which  determines  the  Physis,  though 
in  experiment,  we  make  the  Physis  determine 
or  rather  manifest  the  Psyche. 

So  in  our  Biocosmos  we  shall  try  to  keep 
the  twin  deities  together  without  neglecting 
the  part  of  either.  Above  both  of  them  is 
indeed  a  higher  God,  the  highest,  the  pamp- 
sychical  Zeus  we  may  for  the  occasion  call 
him,  who  rules  not  only  Nature,  but  the  total 
Universe  of  which  Nature  is  a  part.  Or,  to 
draw  upon  William  Shakespeare  in  this  myth- 
ical adumbration,  the  Ariel  and  Caliban  of 
Life  belong  together  in  one  island,  and  are 
servants,  yea  complementary  elements  of  the 
one  supreme  ruler  of  their  world,  who  isPros- 
pero,  and  who  keeps  both  these  refractory 


36  THE  BIOCOSMOS— GENERAL  INTRODUCTION. 

opposites  in  submission  to  his  order.  Still  we 
are  not  to  forget  that  the  all-ruling  Prospero 
is  himself  a  Psyche. 

Somebody  may  here  think  a  question:  Is 
there  a  science,  of  this  Psyche  as  such — a 
science  of  the  soul  (or  ego)  in  itself?  Un- 
doubtedly, and  its  processes  are  what  we  must 
see  as  determining  Nature,  yea  in  the  su- 
preme glance  as  being  Nature.  This  is  a 
stage  of  the  Universal  Psyche,  which  shows 
itself  as  riot  only  determining  matter  for  in- 
stance but  as  being  matter — which  statement 
by  the  way  is  no  denial  of  materiality.  The 
Psyche  as  individual  determines  its  organism 
(or  Physis),  but  as  universal  it  is  the  Physis 
in  one  of  its  phases.  Evolution  manifests 
Nature's  effort  to  overcome  its  primal  es- 
trangement, and  to  return  out  of  separation. 
In  a  different  sphere  (the  Cosmos)  Gravita- 
tion may  be  said  to  show  the  same  striving  to 
return  to  the  first  unity.  But  when  Nature 
has  transcended  its  dualism,  then  it  is  no 
longer  Nature,  it  has  gone  over  into  another 
sphere. 

In  the  long-protracted  struggle  of  Nature 
between  Physis  and  Psyche,  which  is  the  vic- 
tor? And  what  is  the  victory? 


THE  HUMAN  FORM.  37 

V. 

THE  HUMAN  FORM. 

The  culmination  of  Nature's  hierarchy  of 
shapes  is  finally  embodied  in  a  shape — the 
last  physical  shape,  it  would  seem,  and  a  kind 
of  resumption  and  transfiguration  of  them 
all.  The  life-stuff  receives  its  ultimate  in- 
corporation, and  appears  incapable  of  rising 
higher.  The  Psyche  repelled  by  the  refrac- 
tory material,  is  thrown  back  upon  itself,  and 
starts  a  new  world  of  its  own,  that  of  con- 
sciousness. Therewith  the  drama  of  Nature 
with  its  long  line  of  shapes — we  may  even 
call  them  characters — has  concluded. 

It  is  agreed  that  the  highest  manifestation 
of  the  Psyche  in  the  Physis  is  to  be  seen  in 
the  Human  Form. .  From  the  beginning  there 
has  been  a  gradual  evolution  of  physical 
shapes  of  life  till  man  has  been  reached,  who 
is  supposed  to  be  the  topmost  rung  of  the 
ladder.  So  we  see  hanging  down  the  aeons 
that  marvelous  chain  of  life-forms,  every  link 
of  which  is  different  from  yet  interrelated 
with  the  rest.  Moreover  every  link  manifests 
some  gradation  of  the  psychical  revealed  in 
the  physical,  till  the  supreme  revelation  in 
man  is  attained. 

Given  an  elemental  life-stuff  or  protoplasm 


38  THE  BIOCOSMOS— GENERAL  INTRODUCTION. 

we  may  conceive  a  spirit  entering  the  same 
and  moulding  it  into  living  shapes,  as  the 
fabled  Prometheus  formed  the  clay  into  hu- 
man beings.  Here,  however,  he  forms  all 
animate  Nature,  and  vegetal  also,  into  the 
vast  ladder  of  organisms  from  the  simple  uni- 
cellular microbe  to  the  supremely  complex 
body,  in  which  he  finally  moulds  himself.  Such 
is  the  creative  artist  in  creation,  shaping  him- 
self upwards  (really  none  other  than  our 
Psyche)  till  at  last  he  brings  forth  the  highest 
artistic  shape,  that  of  himself  embodying  the 
whole  line  of  shapes  below  him.  Embryolo- 
gists  tell  us  that  the  human  embryo  starts 
with  the  single  cell  and  evolves  through  many 
lower  kinds  of  animals,  probably  represent- 
ing the  entire  gamut  of  animality  down 
the  geologic  ages.  A  German  investigator 
tells  us  that  he  can  trace  a  hundred  rem- 
nants of  inferior  creatures  in  our  organism. 
It  looks  as  if  Psyche,  having  built  the  ladder 
on  which  she  has  ascended  step  by  step,  has 
drawn  it  up  after  her  into  the  highest  story 
of  her  human  temple. 

Something  continuous,  though  invisible, 
runs  through  and  holds  together  this  long  gal- 
lery of  separate  living  shapes — an  ever-cre- 
ating and  advancing  continuity,  not  accessible 
to  the  senses  or  to  the  microscope;  and  just 
here  the  trouble  of  the  scientist  comes  in, 


THE  HUMAN  FORM.  39 

caused  by  the  presence  of  that  elusive  sprite, 
Ariel-Psyche,  who  is  properly  the  connecting 
as  well  as  propelling  principle,  and  who  has 
the  habit  of  being  specially  active  at  the  im- 
portant transitions  of  evolution. 

In  this  connection  the  question  persists  in 
always  returning:  Has  our  Human  Form 
then  attained  its  maximum  of  development? 
Is  the  future  man,  as  long  as  the  sun  lasts,  to 
be  quite  like  us?  This  would  mean  that  the 
outer  evolution  of  animal  Forms  has  practi- 
cally come  to  a  close,  that  the  Psyche  has 
reached  her  culminant  manifestation  in  the 
Physis,  that  the  artist  working  over  the  plas- 
tic life-stuff,  has  succeeded  in  producing  his 
masterpiece  after  the  labor  of  at  least  one 
hundred  million  of  years  (as  some  geologists 
reckon).  Earth's  shape-building  Titan,  the 
Prometheus  of  Nature  has  now  modeled  his 
ideal  in  the  Human  Form,  the  prototype  of 
the  highest  beauty,  and  doubtless  the  visible 
presentation  of  himself,  insofar  as  he  can  be 
moulded  into  finite  limits. 

There  are  many  signs,  however,  that  this 
outer  evolution  of  the  Physis  is  to  be  follow- 
ed by  the  inner  or  pure  evolution  of  the 
Psyche,  who  no  longer  finds  the  plasticity  of 
the  life-stuff  adequate  to  her  self-expression. 
A  sort  of  fixity  of  the  Human  Form  ?aas  taken 
place,  so  that  there  is  little  difference  be- 


40  THE  BIOCOSMOS— GENERAL  INTRODUCTION. 

tween  the  organisms  containing  the  lowest 
and  highest  human  intelligence.  Such  is  the 
most  significant  turning  point  in  the  entire 
stretch  of  animal  evolution :  the  change  from 
a  physical  to  a  psychical  plasticity,  which  al- 
ready began  to  show  itself  decisively  in  the 
era  of  the  anthropoids. 

In  order  to  get  the  bearing  of  this  subject, 
it  is  worth  while  to  go  back  and  mark  the 
most  important  nodes  of  the  evolutionary  as- 
cent of  living  shapes.  Very  sharply  is  it  rec- 
ognized that  man  has  a  vertebral  column  in 
common  with  a  long  ancestral  line  down  to 
the  Fishes.  We  may  start  with  that  portion 
of  the  animal  kingdom  now  called  the  Chor- 
dates,  from  their  distinctive  member  known 
as  the  notochord.  Of  these  the  vertebrates 
are  a  division  whose  beginning  is  usually 
placed  far  back  in  the  Devonian  age.  But 
when  did  that  vertebrated  fish  begin,  or  how? 
Doubtless  in  the  sea,  and  man  still  shows  in 
his  organism  traces  of  having  once  lived  in 
the  water,  where  his  backbone  first  started  in 
its  primal  simplicity.  But  the  next  great 
node  in  the  evolution  of  the  vertebrate  animal 
was  when  it  became  a  mammal,  evolving  the 
mammary  gland  specially  in  the  female — 
which  probably  took  place  in  the  Carbonif- 
erous era,  estimated  variously  from  ten  to 
fifty  millions  of  years  ago.  Again  we  have 


THE  HUMAN  FORM.  4^ 

to  question:  At  what  place  and  How?  Did 
the  great  transition  occur  at  a  single  point 
in  a  single  family  and  possibly  in  a  single 
species  of  animals?  Or  did  the  Mammal 
spring  forth  cotemporaneously  over  a  vast 
area?  The  greater  likelihood  is  that  it,  hav- 
ing been  formed  under  favorable  conditions, 
spread  from  a  common  center.  The  recent 
excavations  of  the  Fayum  in  Egypt,  indicate 
that  it  must  have  been  at  a  very  early  period, 
a  prolific  seat  of  Mammalian  life,  possibly 
its  original  breeding  source.  At  any  rate 
our  muscles,  our  organs  and  their  mutual  re- 
lations were  formed  as  they  now  are  in  those 
transformed  vertebrates  when  they  became* 
suck-giving  and  sucklings — a  most  weighty 
node  of  life's  evolution,  since  the  mother  now 
begins  to  appear,  though  the  female  had  long 
existed  already.  Another  important  node 
may  be  mentioned  in  the  development  of 
animals:  the  placentata,  those  which  have 
evolved  a  placenta  (afterbirth)  in  connec- 
tion with  gestation.  Again  this  new  organ 
belongs  to  the  mother  for  the  reproduction 
of  the  higher  order  of  animals.  That  is,  the 
evolution  of  the  completer  organs  of  ma- 
ternity seems  to  be  connected  with  the  ad- 
vance of  the  animal  world  toward  man,  even 
if  the  placenta  (or  its  first  germ)  occurs 
sporadically  in  some  Invertebrates,  The 


42  THE  BIOCOSMOS— GENERAL  INTRODUCTION. 

Marsupials  may  be  taken  as  the  order  best 
representing  this  transition,  some  having  a 
placenta  and  some  none.  They  seem  at  pres- 
'ent  to  be  on  the  way  to  geologic  extinction, 
being  found  chiefly  in  Australia  (the  opos- 
sum is  said  to  be  the  only  American  Marsu- 
pial). But  in  the  Mesozoic  time  these  ani- 
mals were  scattered  everywhere.  The  Nile 
valley  was  probably  the  center  of  their  orig- 
inal development  and  distribution. 

Accordingly  the  hitherto  pronounced  char- 
acteristic of  the  evolving  line  of  animals  was 
their  formability — the  apparently  easy  re- 
sponse of  Physis  to  Psyche.  But  the  change 
to  a  greater  rigidity  of  sliape  is  already  no- 
ticeable in  the  higher  apes.  A  curious  fact  is 
that  the  zoologist  of  today  has  thrown  over- 
board the  order  Bimana  as  including  man 
alone  and  apart  (this  order  was  first  desig- 
nated by  Blumenbach  and  retained  by  Cu- 
vier),  and  on  anatomical  grounds  has  classed 
man  with  the  apes,  monkeys,  and  lemurs. 
That  is,  man  is  no  longer  distinguished  as 
two-handed  (Bimana)  in  contrast  with  the 
four-handed  ape  (Quadrumana),  for  the  skel- 
etal organisms  of  both  are  practically  the 
same.  So  both  are  now  put  together  into 
one  order  called  the  Primates  (an  old  Lin- 
nean  designation),  in  spite  of  their  enormous 
difference  as  to  intelligence.  In  fact,  man 


THE  HUMAN  FORM.  43 

is  said  to  differ  less  in  body  from  an  ape  than 
an  ape  from  a  monkey.  Thus  the  fixed  shape 
of  the  animal  kingdom  seems  to  have  been 
essentially  attained,  the  life-stuff  no  longer 
responding  to  the  formative  artist  Psyche,  or 
very  slightly.  The  outer  plasticity  of  the 
Human  Form  appears  to  have  culminated 
and  rounded  itself  out  to  a  finish.  It  should 
be  here  noted  that  some  lower  animal  shapes 
of  the  far-away  past  have  shown  themselves 
very  persistent,  enduring  all  the  changes  of 
the  geologic  ages  till  the  present  without  any 
essential  change  of  form.  An  oft-cited  case 
is  the  Brachiopod  Lingula,  which,  starting  in 
the  Cambrian  era,  is  still  found  today.  In 
like  manner,  the  common  crayfish,  whose  ori- 
gin goes  back  to  the  Carboniferous  era,  re- 
tains essentially  the  same  shape  it  had  then, 
even  with  changed  habits.  So  in  the  line  of 
animal  evolution  there  have  been  strains  of 
dogged  persistence  of  form  quite  from  the 
beginnings  of  life.  Other  humble  cases  might 
be  cited,  prophetic,  as  it  were,  of  the  coming 
rigidity  of  the  highest  physical  shapes.  But 
the  main  evolutionary  stream  of  animality 
has  shown  the  aforesaid  plasticity  till  the 
Primates  are  reached. 

Is  man  ever  to  attain  the  point  at  which 
he  may  be  able  to  control  his  shape  by  con- 
trolling the  conditions  which  determine  it? 


44  THE  BIOCOSMOS— GENERAL  INTRODUCTION. 

Mr.  Darwin's  thoughts  on  the  human  in- 
fluence over  Natural  Selection  in  plants  and 
inferior  animals  have  called  up  the  applica- 
tion of  the  same  principle  to  man  himself. 
Can  he  take  a  conscious  part  in  making  his 
own  body,  or  cause  it  to  evolve  along  certain 
transcended  lines,  as  the  breeder  does  the 
sheep  or  cow  or  pigeon!  A  famous  attempt 
in  this  direction  was  Mr.  Galton's  Eugenics 
or  stirpiculture.  Certain  communistic  socie- 
ties have  had  the  same  end  in  view,  for  in- 
stance the  Oneida.  Can  man  tap  afresh  the 
fountain  of  his  body's  plasticity,  now  almost 
sealed,  and  start  it  to  flowing  again,  but  in 
obedience  to  his  will?  Doubtless  such  a  work 
will  be  more  difficult  than  that  peculiar  con- 
trol over  the  vegetal  life-stuff  in  producing 
new  forms,  which  has  been  attained  by  Mr. 
Burbank  in  California.  There  seems,  how- 
ever, to  have  been  no  culmination  of  plant- 
life  in  a  fixed  form,  like  that  of  animal  life 
in  man. 

We  come  back  to  consider  the  rigidity  of 
the  animal  shape,  which  rigidity,  it  is  said, 
has  gradually  increased  from  the  marsupials 
ap  to  the  human  being,  that  is,  through  the 
whole  line  of  placentate  vertebrates.  But 
just  in  this  cessation  of  outer  evolution  there 
rises  the  inner  evolution;  corresponding  to 
the  decrease  of  plasticity  in  the  Physis.  is 


THE  HUMAN   FORM.  45 

the  increase  of  plasticity  in  the  Psyche.  In 
the  almost  stationary  body  of  the  genus  homo 
(excepting  the  brain,  which  keeps  enlarging) 
there  is  an  evolutionary  line  of  mental  forms 
from  the  lowest  Australasian  to  the  highest 
Caucasian,  comparable  to  the  graded  shapes 
of  the  animal  kingdom.  One  biologist  has 
declared  that  these  variations  of  intellect  in 
the  one  almost  unvarying  human  shape  are 
relatively  greater  than  the  whole  gamut  of 
the  vertebrates,  from  the  Fishes  to  highest 
Primates.  The  proposition  has  been  made  to 
have  a  new  internal  classification  by  the 
standard  of  mind  into  species,  genera,  fam- 
ilies, orders.  Taking  the  races  of  men  to- 
gether from  the  lowest  to  the  best,  we  observe 
a  line  of  psychical  forms  of  the  greatest  va- 
riety, in  one  nearly  invariable  organism. 

It  would  seem,  then,  that  the  Psyche,  hav- 
ing quite  lost  its  evolutionary  power  over  the 
Physis,  has  turned  back  upon  itself  and  pro- 
poses henceforth  to  evolve  that.  In  other 
words  psychical  evolution  has  now  evolved 
itself  in  its  own  right,  capping  physical  evo- 
lution, and  is  evidently  going  to  have  a  long 
career  in  the  future.  To  be  sure  there  is  the 
racial  chasm  between  the  far  inferior  and  the 
far  superior  man,  and  this  chasm  in  certain 
directions  seems  quite  impassable  already, 
and  is  possibly  widening.  But  in  the  coming 


46  THE  BIOCOSMOS— GENERAL  INTRODUCTION. 

million  of  years  of  psychical  development  in 
the  progressive  man,  what  is  to  be  the  trend? 
It  is  quite  soul-stretching  enough  to  think 
of  such  a  prophecy  without  attempting  more 
than  the  faintest  foreshadow.  The  power  of 
association  seems  to  be  the  line  on  which 
mental  mankind  is  at  present  most  distinct- 
ively evolving. 

But  before  going  further,  we  should  glance 
at  the  fact  that  the  Psyche  reaches  the  point 
of  turning  back  upon  itself,  grasping  itself 
and  therefrom  unfolding  itself.  What  is  that 
process  but  Consciousness,  which  has  now 
broken  through  the  shell  of  the  Physis,  not 
yet  into  the  sunlight  but  into  the  earliest  cre- 
puscule  of  self-knowledge?  That  is,  the  hu- 
man Ego  has  arrived,  hitherto  only  immanent 
in  the  Physis,  implicit,  a  potentiality  evolv- 
ing to  reality.  After  the  long  separation  in 
Nature  the  Psyche  has  come  back  to  itself 
in  the  individual  man,  has  risen  to  self-aware- 
ness, and  is  a  Psychosis  with  its  own  inner 
self-divison  and  'self-return,  no  longer  a  phy- 
sically encumbered  Psyche.  But  herewith  the 
entire  realm  of  Nature  is  transcended,  having 
run  its  course  of  separation  from  and  in  the 
Universe  (or  All-Self),  and  returned  to  its 
fountain-head,  with  which  it  has  become  one 
even  in  its  separation  as  individual,  who  is 
now  psychical  man.  Or,  in  the  terms  already 


THE  HUMAN  FORM.  47 

employed,  the  Psychosis,  while  preserving  it- 
self as  individual,  is  united  with  the  Pampsy- 
chosis  as  universal,  completing  the  same  in 
its  triune  process  of  God,  Nature  and  Man, 
which  constitutes  the  fulfilled  cycle  of  the 
Universe.  The  primordial  fact,  therefore,  of 
human  consciousness  (or  the  »Ego)  is  that, 
ere  it  can  become,  it  must  share  in  the  uni- 
versal or  divine  consciousness.  Man,  to  know 
himself,  must  at  the  same  time  know  the  All- 
Self,  though  both  knowledges  be  at  first  very 
faint.  Our  single  Ego  is  not  drawn  out  of 
itself  merely,  but  must  tap  the  universal  cre- 
ative Ego. 

It  is  fitting  to  ask  when  and  where  this 
transition,  this  breaking-through  of  con- 
sciousness took  place,  perchance  like  the  chick 
out  of  the  egg-shell.  No  doubt  the  change 
was  slow  measured  even  in  millenniums.  The 
antiquity  of  man  is  now  thrown  back  into 
the  Tertiary  at  least  a  million  of  years  ago, 
as  the  geologists  say.  As  to  locality,  Egypt 
again  looms  up  as  the  probable  starting- 
point.  The  Nile  may  well  be  regarded  on 
Nature's  side  as  the  father  of  conscious  man. 
No  other  river,  no  other  part  of  the  globe 
furnishes  so  many  favorable  conditions  for 
the  rise  of  human  Ego.  The  Nile  fed  its 
early  anthropoid  children  with  a  hand  which 
reached  from  an  unknown  source  like  a  deity, 


48  THE  BIOCOSMOS— GENERAL  INTRODUCTION. 

and  thus  nursed  a  God-consciousness,  inter- 
linking it  with  human  consciousness.  Then 
arose  the  earliest  association  of  man  in  an 
institution,  doubtless  the  religious,  with 
which  was  intimately  joined  the  political  in- 
stitution. As  late  as  the  time  of  Herodotus 
the  observant  historian  could  declare  that  the 
Egyptians  were  still  the  most  religious  of 
peoples. 

Conscious  man,  therefore,  probably  spread 
out  from  the  Nile,  that  unique  stream-bed  of 
our  terraqueous  globe,where  he  broke  through 
into  his  double  Self-awareness,  not  only  that 
of  his  own  Self,  but  likewise  that  of  the  All- 
Self,  the  two  indeed  being  united  in  the  one 
basic  process  of  consciousness.  Certainly  the 
most  important  node  was  just  that  in  the 
movement  of  humanity,  yea  of  all  animality, 
possibly  of  total  Nature  as  far  as  our  planet 
is  concerned.  We  have  already  noticed  that 
Egypt  was  probably  the  center  of  the  great 
Mammalian  transition  of  the  Vertebrates, 
and  even  the  Vertebrates  may  have  started 
there.  For  that  matter  the  original  proto- 
plasmic life-stuff  in  which  took  place  that 
primordial  transition  from  the  Inorganic  to 
the  Organic,  from  Unlife  to  Life,  may  have 
been  the  Nile  slime  whose  proliferous  energy 
has  been  famed  from  time  immemorial.  Not 
without  parallel  significance  is  the  fact  that 


THE   HUMAN   FORM.  49 

Egypt  was  the  home  of  the  first  human  civili- 
zation, of  the  earliest  institutional  associ- 
ation of  man,  and  perchance  the  breeding- 
nest  of  Life  itself.  Very  suggestive  from  this 
point  of  view  is  that  old  recumbent  statue 
of  the  Nile-God  still  to  be  seen  in  a  Roman 
gallery  of  sculpture,  with  all  sorts  of  crea- 
tures crawling  over  and  indeed  out  of  his 
body,  which  seems  at  every  point  to  be 
sprouting  into  living  things.  Ancient  Art 
would  appear,  accordingly,  to  have  grasped 
and  embodied  the  divine  paternity  of  Life 
in  old  Father  Nile,  who  was  also  an  object 
of  worship  in  this  character  to  his  immediate 
human  children  strown  along  his  stream. 

The  conscious  man  is  not  only  aware  of 
himself  but  also  of  his  fellow-man  as  con- 
scious, and  as  participating  in  the  All-Self. 
Thus  they  have  something  in  common,  yea 
the  common  universal  Self,  known  to  both 
equally  in  the  very  act  of  consciousness.  Here 
is  the  primal  uniting  point  for  man's  asso- 
ciation in  institutions.  Undoubtedly  the  non- 
human  animals,  even  the  insects  manifest  al- 
ready an  instinctive  association  for  mutual 
security  and  co-operation,  marvelously  fore- 
showing conscious  association,  which,  how- 
ever, indicates  the  passage  of  a  grand  nodal 
epoch.  Conscious  men  first  unite  in  their 
common  All-Self  (Pampsychosis)  and  build 


50  THE  BIOCOSMOS— GENERAL  INTRODUCTION. 

their  earliest  institution  to  Him  as  their  God, 
who  also  indwells  their  earliest  temple,  the 
abode  of  the  religious  institution.  From  this 
germinal  source  evolves  the  whole  institu- 
tional world;  even  the  Family,  the  sexual 
relation  of  man  and  woman,  rises  out  of  ani- 
mality  into  the  institution,  at  least  in  the 
beginning,  through  the  religious  sanction, 
which  stamps  it  with  its  .own  seal  of  perma- 
nence, unity,  and  universality. 

But  what  of  the  future,  watchman?  Hard 
to  foretell  in  any  detail;  still  a  little  with 
becoming  modesty  may  be  glimpsed.  It  is 
highly  probable  that  man's  development  is  to 
move  just  on  this  line  of  institutional  asso- 
ciation, with  which  he  dimly  started  far  back 
yonder  in  the  twilight  of  his  first  conscious- 
ness, perchance  on  the  Nile  banks.  All  indi- 
viduals, while  retaining  and  unfolding  their 
individuality  to  the  fullest,  are  to  be  social- 
ized in  a  common  solidarity  of  institutions 
which  are  to  make  possible  and  to  secure  the 
free  growth  of  the  individual  to  his  supreme 
spiritual  stature.  A  world-union  only  can 
bring  forth  the  world-man  and  the  world- 
people  in  their  full  freedom.  Already  the 
statement  has  been  taken  up  by  the  popular 
mind  that  man  is  a  social  product,  the  child 
of  association — the  completer  the  association 
the  greater  the  child.  In  the  political  insti- 


THE  HUMAN  FORM.  5^ 

tution  we  may  often  hear  the  aspiration  to 
federate  the  nations  and  even  the  races. 
Seers,  poets,  and  philosophers  have  long  since 
expressed  it ;  seemingly  the  ancient  Stoic  had 
already  some  such  ideal.  In  general  the 
proposition  seems  to  hold  good  that  the  lower 
the  man,  the  people,  the  race,  the  less  their 
power  of  institutional  association,  which  is 
getting  to  be  known  as  the  final  test  of  human 
worth  and  efficiency. 

Still  the  strong  counterstroke  to  this  trend 
of  mankind  is  not  to  be  omitted.  Always 
moving  with,  yet  struggling  against  institu- 
tionalism  is  found  its  fierce  antagonist,  anar- 
chism, which,  however,  takes  many  forms, 
from  bitter  bloody  destruction  to  mild  moral 
suasion.  In  literature  there  has  ever  been  a 
loud  anti-institutional  voice,  often  that  of  the 
genius  of  the  time,  like  Byron  and  Walt  Whit- 
man for  instance,  and  even  Goethe  during  one 
period  of  his  career.  And  this  deeply  hostile 
spirit  has  not  failed  to  proceed  from  the 
word  .to  the  deed  as  in  the  French  Ee volu- 
tion. So  the  supreme  institutional  move- 
ment of  humanity  has  its  opponents  within 
its  own  ranks  both  doing  and  protesting, 
who  make  up  the  negative  element  belonging 
to  the  complete  process. 

The  unity  of  man  through  institutional  as- 
sociation would  seem  to  be  the  outlook.  Not 


52  THE  BIOCOSMOS— GENERAL  INTRODUCTION. 

a  pantheistical  swallowing-up  of  the  individ- 
ual is  here  prefigured,  but  that  co-operant 
order  which  secures  the  individual  in  his  free 
development.  And  finally  to  make  the  bio- 
logical connection,  it  may  be  stated  that  even 
the  simple  living  cell  shows  this  power  of 
association.  It  unites,  for  instance  with  its 
fellow-cells  in  order  to  form  the  human  or- 
gan, yea  to  form  the  total  human  organism, 
with  a  marvelous  variety  of  adjustment  in 
the  one  little  cell-life.  But  this  biological  or- 
ganization of  each  individual  is  to  be  carried 
up  into  the  psychical  organization  of  all  these 
individuals  who  thus  become  one  associated 
whole,  which  we  may  faintly  forecast  as  the 
universal  institution  of  the  race.  Possibly, 
then,  man  may  be  able  to  master  the  cell-or- 
ganization of  his  own  framework,  and  to 
mould  anew  the  Human  Form  consciously. 

Still  at  present  the  plasticity  of  the  life- 
stuff  to  the  indwelling  Psyche  appears  to  be 
halted  for  a  period  of  inner  development  and 
higher  association.  But  therewith  we  have 
moved  out  of  the  science  of  Nature  into  that 
of  Psychology  proper,  which,  though  suc- 
ceeding Nature  in  the  order  of  development 
must  finally  go  back  to  it  and  organize  it 
anew,  putting  it  into  its  ultimate  scientific 
place  in  the  great  totality  of  all  science,  psy- 
chical and  physical.  So  man  may  now  deem 


THE  HUMAN  FORM.  53 

himself  to  be  in  the  epoch  of  the  plastic 
Psyche,  whose  forms  are  pouring  forth  with 
dazzling  rapidity  into  the  world  of  reality. 
And  we  may  dream  of  some  future  return  of 
the  plastic  Physis,  shaped  no  longer  purely 
'by  the  instinctive  impulse  of  Nature,  but  by 
the  conscious  purpose  of  Man,  who  ultimately 
needs  not  to  take  anything  for  granted  in  the 
Universe,  except  the  Universe  with  himself 
thrown  in. 

But  such  a  time  is  far  removed  and  cannot 
much  concern  us  now;  so  we  shall  come  back 
to  the  theme  which  lies  directly  on  our  path. 


THE  BIOCOSMOS. 

PRELIMINARY. 

We  now  enter  the  sphere  of  the  Science  of 
Life  whose  appropriate  designation  is  known 
as  Biology.  But  the  ordinary  usage  of  this 
term,  which  is  indeed  somewhat  variable  in 
meaning,  does  not  fit  the  conception  which  we 
seek  to  formulate.  So  we  adopt  a  cognate 
word  which  also  has  the  merit,  for  us  at  least, 
of  suggesting  through  its  termination  its  con- 
nection with  the  two  correlative  stages  of 
Nature  which  have  preceded  it. 

If  we  should  translate  the  word,  taken  from 
the  Greek,  which  is  employed  as  the  title  of 
this  book,  we  would  call  it  Life's  Cosmos,  or 
Order.  The  subject  is,  therefore,  the  ordered 
Life  on  this  planet,  since  we  are  cognizant  of 
none  other.  Now  this  ordered  Life  must  em- 
brace not  merely  the  activity  of  Nature  but 
(54) 


RELATING  TO  COSMOS  AND  DIACOSMOS.       55 

also  of  Man  in  his  attempt  to  construe  and 
formulate  the  same — which  gives  the  science 
of  Nature.  It  is  Man  who  turns  back  upon 
the  physical  world  and  seeks  to  re-order  it  ac- 
cording to  its  own  genetic  principle,  and  then 
to  precipitate  this  into  human  speech.  The 
Biocosmos,  therefore,  to  be  complete,  must 
include  not  Life  alone,  not  the  Science  of  Life 
alone,  but  likewise  the  Mind  making  this 
Science. 

Moreover,  in  the  sweep  of  total  Nature,  the 
Biocosmos  is  but  one  stage,  the  third,  which 
has  the  universal  characteristic  of  turning 
back  upon  itself  and  thus  finishing  its  cycle. 
The  animated  world  has  the  pervasive  trait 
that  it  can  be  stimulated  to  some  kind  of  self- 
movement,  which  involves  the  life-round  of 
taking  up  and  giving  out.  The  oak  develops 
the  acorn,  which  in  turn  becomes  the  oak  pro- 
ducing the  acorn;  the  falling  leaf  whirls  to 
the  source  whence  it  came,  the  earth,  ready 
to  begin  over.  More  pronounced  are  the  cir- 
cuits of  the  animal  body — nervous,  circu- 
latory, muscular.  Deeply  grounded  is  this 
self-returning  principle  of  the  Biocosmos  as 
the  third  stage  of  Nature ;  it  is  what  the  mind 
is  ultimately  to  see  and  formulate,  and  there- 
by identify  with  itself.  Its  process  is  psych- 
ical, must  be  so,  else  the  Psyche  never  could 
get  it. 


56  THE  BIOCOSMOS— PRELIMINARY. 

There  are  accordingly  two  other  stages  of 
Nature  as  a  whole  which  are  antecedent  to 
the  present  one,  and  which  we  name  in  order 
Cosmos  and  Diacosmos.  The  first  is  essen- 
tially gravitative,  and  manifests  the  varied 
unification  of  matter  after  its  equally  varied 
separation,  and  thus  gives  rise  to  what  is  gen- 
erally known  as  the  mechanical  world.  The 
second  stage  (Diacosmos)  is  the  separative, 
and  as  the  opposite  of  unity-seeking  gravita- 
tion may  be  considered  degravitative,  or 
radio-active  in  the  wide  sense  of  the  term. 
Already  in  the  Cosmos  is  to  be  noticed  a 
radial  force  which  arises  in  the  case  of  a  rap- 
idly rotating  body,  and  flings  off  an  outermost 
fragment  in  opposition  to  gravitation.  This 
is  the  way  in  which  the  sun  as  nebula  is  sup- 
posed to  have  ejected  the  planets  of  the  solar 
system,  which  still  remains  cosmical  or  me- 
chanical, since  this  ejective  or  radial  energy  is 
in  the  end  controlled  by  gravitation.  Thus  it 
is  that  the  planets,  after  having  been  thrown 
off  by  the  sun,'  remain  in  its  gravitational 
empire  and  circle  about  it  in  their  orbits. 
From  this  point  of  view  we  are  to  make  a  dis- 
tinction between  a  radial  (cosmical)  move- 
ment and  a  radio-active  (diacosmical)  move- 
ment. An  instance  of  the  latter  is  seen  in 
Light,  which  the  Sun  rays  out  far  beyond  Kis 
system,  without  return  apparently,  as  may 


RELATING-  TO  COSMOS  AND  DIACOSMOS,       57 

be  inferred  from  the  luminosity  of  other  dis- 
tant suns  in  starry  space,  Light,  therefore, 
illustrates  the  degravitation  of  the  Diacos- 
mos,  even  it  is  can  be  weighed,  and  separates 
and  keeps  on  separating  from  its  solar  source 
to  the  extent  of  its  energy.  The  term  Dia- 
cosmos  embraces  what  is  usually  included  un- 
der Physics  and  Chemistry  in  the  scientific 
nomenclature  of  to-day. 

These,  then,  are  the  two  stages  which  pre- 
cede the  Biocosmos,  and  with  it  form  the  total 
process  of  the  physical  world.  The  Order  of 
Life  (Biocosmos)  is,  in  this  view  the  self- 
returning  stage  of  Nature,  in  which  stage  the 
latter,  after  its  separation,  is  seeking  to  get 
back  to  itself.  To  take  an  example :  Heat,  the 
diacosmical  radiant,  falling  upon  a  plant,  has 
its  energy  transmuted  into  the  round  of 
vegetal  life,  which  moves  from  the  burst- 
ing seed  into  root,  stem,  branch,  flower,  back 
to  seed,  its  starting  point.  Thus  Heat,  with 
its  radiative  energy  undulating  outward  to 
infinity,  is  made  to  wheel  about  and  work  in  a 
cycle  through  a  living  thing.  Or,  .using  our 
general  terms,  we  may  say  that  the  Diacosmos 
with  its  radio-activity,  is  transformed  into  a 
self-returning  circular  activity  through  the 
Biocosmos  whch  controls  it  to  the  purpose  of 
life.  The  same  is  true  of  Light,  Electricity, 
Chemism,  of  water  and  air — in  fine  of  the 


58  THE  BIOCOSMOS— PRELIMINARY. 

whole  Diacosmical  realm.  Life,  in  the  uni- 
versal view  of  Nature  may  be  deemed  to  have 
this  object :  to  assimilate  to  itself  and  thus  to 
vitalize  the  ever-separating  radio-active  prin- 
ciple of  the  physical  world — in  other  words, 
to  elevate  the  Diacosmos  into  the  Biocosmos, 
to  make  air  and  water,  Heat  and  Light  live. 
For  it  is  agreed  that  Life  is  the  higher. 
Nevertheless  Life  is  still  of  Nature  and  bears 
within  itself  Nature's  dualism.  It  has  not  the 
completed  self-return  which  belongs  to  the 
Psyche,  is  not  spiritual ;  it  is  still  corporeal, 
in  the  material  body,  which,  however,  must 
in  its  turn  be  transcended.  Still  in  the  Bio- 
cosmos  every  piece  of  matter,  even  infinites- 
imal, gets  endowed  with  the  self-returning 
principle  inside  itself,  and  so  is  animate, 
organic.  Such  is  the  great  third  stage  of 
Nature  which  unites  the  two  other  stages. 
For  the  living  thing  is  still  cosmical  and  grav- 
itative,  as  well  as  diacosmical  and  radiative; 
the  bit  of  vitality  falls  back  to  the  earth,  even 
if  it  lift  itself  for  awhile  from  the  earth.  The 
original  separation  of  Nature  from  the  All 
cannot  be  overcome  by  life. 

At  the  start  we  are  to  consider  the  sur- 
prising limitation  of  the  Biocosmos  compared 
with  its  two  correlative  spheres.  For  the 
Cosmos  as  well  as  the  Diacosmos  reach  out  to 
an  indefinite  extent  in  the  physical  universe, 


LIMITS  OF  LIFE.  59 

are  indeed  often  called  infinite ;  while  the  Bio- 
cosmos  we  find  circumscribed  on  all  sides,  in 
Space,  Time,  Quantity.  Of  this  fact  we  shall 
take  some  notice  in  detail. 

I.  In  the  first  place,  Life,  as  it  is  found  on 
our  globe,  exists  nowhere  else  in  the  Universe, 
as  far  as  we  know.  Under  the  conditions 
given  by  our  earth,  it  can  hardly  endure  on 
any  other  planet,  though  some  have  thought 
that  Mars  may  be  inhabited.  Of  course,  there 
can  be  imagined  a  vital  activity  very  different 
from  ours — an  animal  heat,  for  instance, 
equal  to  the  heat  of  the  Sun,  and  the  Sun  has 
been  sometimes  held  to  be  an  animal.  Still, 
as  far  as  we  can  at  present  discover,  Life  is 
a  unique  terrestrial  gift. 

In  the  next  place  planetary  Life  regarded  as 
a  whole,  is  an  exceedingly  small  part — rela- 
tively not  more  than  a  microscopic  point— 
of  the  total  amount  of  matter  of  our  globe. 
One  scientist  has  estimated  that  all  living 
organisms  taken  together — the  sum  total  of 
Earth-life — to  be  not  more  than  one  ten- 
millionth  part  of  the  material  whole  of  our 
terrestrial  sphere.  This  estimate  does  not 
take  into  account  the  physical  universe  out- 
side of  the  Earth-ball,  which  is  also  non-vital, 
as  far  as  we  can  tell.  As  to  quantity,  there- 
fore, all  Life,  conceived  together  in  mass,  is 


60  THE  BIOCOSMOS— PRELIMINARY. 

exceedingly  small,  compared  with  Unlife  or 
the  inorganic  Earth. 

In  the  third  place,  the  thermal  limits  of  ter- 
restrial Life  are  equally  striking.  Heat,  the 
diacosmical  radiant,  plays  a  most  important 
part  not  only  in  generating  the  planetary 
system  as  a  whole,  but  also  in  vitalizing  our 
globe.  Yet  the  bounds  are  sharply  drawn: 
too  much  Heat  or  too  little  destroys  Life, 
which,  however,  thrives  on  a  certain  amount 
of  it.  Take  the  180  degrees  of  the  Fahren- 
heit scale  between  the  freezing  and  boiling- 
points  ;  the  middle  100  degrees  constitute  the 
range  of  temperature  in  which  the  vast  ma- 
jority of  organic  beings  exist.  To  be  sure 
there  are  exceptions  both  among  plants  and 
animals  which  transcend  the  limits  each  way, 
hot  and  cold ;  still  these  exceptions  do  not  get 
very  far  from  the  border,  but  hover  around 
the  general  range  of  Life's  temperature — the 
before-mentioned  hundred  degrees  (or  per- 
chance a  little  more).  Here  the  fact  must  be 
brought  out  that  this  heat-scale  of  terrestrial 
vitality  is  but  a  small  part — a  dot  as  it  were— 
of  the  total  scale  (or  spectrum)  of  thermal 
energy  in  the  universe.  The  heat  at  the  sur- 
face of  the  sun  has  been  variously  estimated, 
say  from  8,000  to  20,000  degrees  Centigrade, 
and  even  more ;  but  with  any  of  these  meas- 
urements we  see  to  what  a  little  speck  of  a 


LIMITS  OF  LIFE.  (ft 

heat-scale  our  Earth-life  is  confined.  It  may 
be  added  that  our  sun  is  by  no  means  the 
hottest  star,  but  it  is  reported  by  authori- 
tative scientists  to  be  about  half  burnt-out, 
having  already  dissipated  the  moiety  of  its 
heat-giving  energy. 

In  the  fourth  place,  as  regards'  Time,  Life 
is  and  has  been  confined  in  what  seems  im- 
passible limits.  We  at  this  moment  exist  be- 
cause the  Earth  is  cooling  off;  once  it  was  too 
hot,  hereafter  it.  will  be  too  cold,  according  to 
scientific  prophecy.  Thus  Man,  and  indeed 
the  total  Earth-life  is  limited  at  two  temporal 
boundaries  in  the  Past  and  the  Future,  and  is 
properly  moving  through  a  transitional  stage 
of  the  globe,  from  the  beginning  to  the  end 
of  the  organic  world.  It  is  supposed  that  this 
Earth-life  started  about  one  hundred  million 
years  ago  at  which  time  our  original  ter- 
restrial fire-ball  had  cooled  down  to  a  point 
which  not  only  permitted  but  possibly  gen- 
erated the  first  protoplasmic  vital  stuff  (Pro- 
tobioticon)  out  of  which  have  evolved  all  the 
plants  and  animals  of  the  geologic  ages  down 
to  the  present  moment.  A  long  period  had 
elapsed — doubtless  several  hundred  millions 
of  years — before  this  epoch  of  terrestrial 
vitality  arrived.  At  what  turn  of  the  aeons 
the  Earth-life  will  expire  is  of  course  conjec- 
tural; some  say  another  hundred  million 


62  THE  BIOC08MOS— PRELIMINARY. 

years  at  least  are  its  due.  Thus  the  heat- 
scale  of  life,  after  having  lasted  so  long,  is  to 
vanish  from  the  globe  according  to  present 
science,  which  in  this  way  sees  the  thermal 
principle  slowly  failing,  and  makes  the  Dia- 
cosmos  bring  on  the  death  of  the  Biocosmos. 
Here  it  should  be  added  that  the  other  Dia- 
cosmical  radiants,  Light  and  Electricity,  are 
quite  as  necessary  to  Life  as  is  Heat.  In 
their  case,  too,  vital  action  lies  between  too- 
much  and  too-little.  There  is  a  light-scale  of 
Life,  and  an  electric  scale  of  Life;  in  both 
these  cases  also  comes  up  the  question  of  the 
final  extinction  of  Earth-life. with  the  waning 
of  the  Sun.  The  problem  likewise  presents 
itself  in  regard  to  other  solar  systems.  For 
instance,  does  the  same  heat-scale  of  life  pre- 
vail in  the  supposed  planetary  retinue  of 
Sirius,  or  of  Arcturus!  We  may  be  curious 
enough  about  our  nearest  stellar  neighbor, 
Alpha  Centauri,  to  ask  whether  it  has  in  its 
train  a  planet  corresponding  to  our  Earth 
with  a  similar 'Order  of  Life  (Biocosmos)? 
Unanswerable  are  all  such  questions,  but  they 
help  illustrate  the  limits  of  our  terrestrial 
Life,  which,  like  the  Life  of  the  individual, 
has  its  period  of  birth,  bloom,  and  cessation, 
according  to  the  present  Diacosmical  trend 
of  science.  Still  we  cannot  help  interrogat- 


LIMITS  OF  LIFE.  $3 

ing  science  herself :  will  you  yet  rescue  our 
Biocosrnos  from  extinction? 

Other  limits  of  the  Earth-life  may  be  men- 
tioned. It  can  hardly  reach  above  seven  miles 
or  so  of  the  atmospheric  envelope  of  the 
globe;  on  the  other  hand,  it  does  not  extend 
very  far  below  the  terrestrial  surface;  thus 
all  living  things  exist  on  a  thin  globular  shell. 
There  are  also  seasonal  and  zonal  bounds 
to  vital  activity  upon  the  Earth's  surface. 
Scientists  have  brought  to  light  a  curious 
fact  about  carbon  dioxide  (carbonic  acid  gas) 
in  the  air.  The  animal  expels  it,  the-plant 
takes  it  up ;  too  much  of  it  in  the  atmosphere 
destroys  the  animal,  too  little  of  it  the  plant. 
Something  similar  may  be  said  of  other  aerial 
ingredients  in  reference  to  Life,  for  instance, 
oxygen.  The  vital  principle  hovers  on  every 
side  between  too-much  and  too-little ;  all  Life, 
be  it  of  the  whole  Earth  or  of  one  individual, 
seems  to  hang  fated  between  two  mortal  ex- 
tremes. 

In  some  such  fashion  we  have  to  draw  the 
limits  of  our  Biocosmos.  It  is  the  one  living- 
speck  in  the  whole  physical  universe,  as  far 
as  man's  knowledge  goes,  and  we,  each  one 
of  us,  are  but  a  little  brief  speck  of  that 
speck — a  microscopic  microbe  of  the  All. 
Very  limited  in  size  and  quantity,  in  place 
and  time  is  not  only  individual  existence,  but 


64  THE  BIOCOSMOS— PRELIMINARY. 

the  sum  total  of  vitality.  Life  is,  therefore, 
inseparable  from  its  overwhelming  negative 
counterpart,  Death,  which  bounds  it  on  every 
side.  Sad,  tragic,  quite  unendurable  would 
be  the  outlook  for  thought,  if  mere  Life  were 
the  be-all  and  end-all  of  our  terrestrial  career. 
But  Life  is  only  a  stage  of  Nature,  and  Na- 
ture herself  is  a  stage  of  the  larger  and  larg- 
est process,  in  which  Man  participates 
through  mind. 

Very  small  is,  then,  the  Biocosmos,  a  mere 
point  in  the  physical  universe;  still  we  have 
to  think  that  through  this  point  the  bound- 
less Cosmos  as  well  as  the  Diacosmos  have 
to  pass  in  order  to  attain  the  end  of  their 
'creation,  whose  outcome  is  the  conscious  Self. 
This  point  of  Life  is  a  kind  of  pivot  on  which 
the  vast  separation  of  Nature  begins  to  turn 
back  toward  its  source;  each  living  indi- 
vidual is  a  little  pivot  of  that  sort,  and  shows 
in  himself  and  in  many  organic  functions 
(such  as  the  circulation  of  the  blood  and 
other  fluids)  tl;e  vital  round  of  the  totality 
of  which  he  is  a  part. 

II.  Quite  as  there  is  a  heat-scale  of  Life, 
so  there  is  a  heat-scale  of  chemical  affinities, 
above  or  below  which  such  affinities  grow 
weak  or  vanish  altogether.  You  have  all  seen 
the  avidity  of  the  metal  potassium  for  oxy- 
gen; throw  a  piece  of  it  into  water  and  it  will 


EVOLUTION  OF  CHEMI8M.  35 

take  fire,  decomposing  the  water  for  the  sake 
of  the  oxygen  with  which  it  unites  in  a  flame, 
and  releasing  the  hydrogen.  The  experiment 
is  indeed  suggestive,  and  would  seem  to  fore- 
cast the  time  when  people  will  burn  water 
for  heating  and  illuminating  purposes.  But 
the  significant  fact  in  this  connection  is  that 
potassium  loses  its  power  at  very  high  or 
low  temperatures;  Davy,  in  1807,  separated 
it  from  potash  through  electrical  heat,  where- 
by it  gave  up  its  affinity ;  Dewar,  who  reduced 
oxygen  to  a  liquid  by  cold,  has  said  that  potas- 
sium "will  float  untarnished  in  liquid  oxy- 
gen " — just  the  opposite  of  what  it  will  do 
when  immersed  in  water  at  the  ordinary  tem- 
perature of  Life.  Thus  the  heat-scale  of 
affinity  in  case  of  potassium  has  a  unique 
parallellism  with  the  heat-scale  of  living 
things,  as  already  given ;  like  animals  it  seems 
to  take  up  oxygen  between  certain  degrees  of 
temperature. 

In  the  present  case  the  behavior  of  potas- 
sium may  be  taken  as  typical  of  Chemism 
which  shows  a  striking  adjustment  to  the 
heat-scale  of  terrestrial  Life.  We  cannot  yet 
tell  much  about  the  chemical  condition  of  mat- 
ter at  very  low  temperatures;  there  is  no 
spectroscope  of  intense  cold  such  as  we  have 
of  the  heat  and  light  of  the  heavenly  bodies. 
At  the  life-temperature  of  the  earth — say 


(J6  THE  BIOCOSMOS— PRELIMINARY. 

generally  between  the  freezing  and  the  boil- 
ing points — Chemism  would  seem  to  have  a 
tendency  to  the  multiplication  of  its  elements, 
and  to  an  easy  combination  of  them  into  com- 
pounds. But  when  we  turn  to  the  intense 
heat  of  the  sun  and  stars,  there  is  the  oppo- 
site tendency,  namely,  to  prevent  compounds 
and  to  reduce  the  number  of  chemical  ele- 
ments. Such  a  compound  as  water  would 
not  be  tolerated  in  the  sun;  it  would  not  sim- 
ply be  converted  into  vapor  but  decomposed 
into  its  elements,  oxygen  and  hydrogen.  But 
our  sun  is  by  no  means  the  hottest  star ;  this 
trait,  according  to  the  spectroscopic  investi- 
gations of  Lockyer,  belongs  to  two  stars  in 
the  constellation  Argo,  which,  however,  have 
no  oxygen.  But  they  do  have  hydrogen,  and 
what  would  seem  the  earliest  form  of  it,  called 
proto-hydrogen,  with  some  other  fainter,  pos- 
sibly undeveloped  chemical  elements  (such  as 
proto-calcium  and  proto-magnesium),  and 
also  with  at  least  two  terrestrially  unknown 
elements.  Now  all  this  suggests  the  inor- 
ganic evolution  of  the  physical  universe,  espe- 
cially on  its  chemical  side.  There  is  the  indi- 
cation (though  not  the  proof)  that  the  eighty 
or  more  present  elements  known  to  chemistry 
have  been  evolved  from  one  primordial  sub- 
stance of  which  proto-hydrogen, .  marked  by 
the  spectroscope,  may  be  the  first  chemical 


EVOLUTION  OF  CHEMISM.  (57 

derivative.  But  what  is  this  primordial  sub- 
stance? Ether,  we  would  say,  though  this  is 
as  yet  far-off  conjecture — ether  itself  being 
still  at  large,  never  having  been  caught  and 
caged  by  science.  Still  it  is  worth  while  to 
note  the  intense  stress  of  the  time  upon  this 
inorganic  evolution  as  the  due  counterpart 
to  organic  evolution,  which  so  illumines  the 
name  and  work  of  Darwin,  even  if  he  was  not 
the  beginner  thereof. 

The  hydrogen  of  terrestrial  water,  which 
enters  so  largely  into  animal  and  vegetable 
life,  has  thus  a  very  hoary  ancestry,  reach- 
ing back  seemingly  to  the  first  stage  of  vis- 
ible stellar  evolution,  to  the  time  when  our 
sun  was  in  the  thermal  condition  of  the  very 
hottest  stars  of  the  firmament  (the  two  in 
Argo,  according  to  Lockyer,  against  whose 
views,  it  should  be  added,  there  is  consider- 
able protest).  Oxygen  appears  later,  in  the 
group  represented  by  the  star  Alnitam,  very 
faintly  at  first.  These  two  elements,  how- 
ever, do  not  chemically  unite  on  any  star 
seemingly ;  not  till  the  earth  has  been  ejected 
by  the  sun  and  has  cooled  down  toward  the 
thermal  life-scale,  does  water  appear  in  its 
three  forms,  two  of  which,  the  solid  and  the 
vapor,  almost  mark  the  bounds  of  vital  exist- 
ence. Such  is  the  remote  genealogy  of  the 
liquid  we  thoughtlessly  sip;  it  is  the  chief 


68 


THE  BIOCOSMOS— PRELIMINARY. 


mediator  of  life,  the  solvent  of  nature,  the 
purveyor  of  food,  of  heat  and  cold,  to  plant 
and  animal.  To  be  sure  all  the  chemical  in- 
gredients of  our  organism  show  a  far-off  stel- 
lar ancestry;  for  instance,  the  lime  in  our 
bones  is  carried  back  to  the  earliest  group 
of  stars  (Argonian)  in  proto-calcium.  This 
element  (calcium)  becomes  very  prominent  in 
our  Sun  from  which  the  Earth  derived  it, 
but  chiefly  if  not  entirely  in  the  form  of  com- 
pounds, for  the  pure  metal  calcium  can  only 
be  found  in  the  chemist's  laboratory.  Its 
affinity  for  oxygen  (like  the  typical  potas- 
sium) is  so  strong  that  it  cannot  persist  at 
the  Earth's  life-temperature. 

Thus  we  begin  to  glimpse  the  outlines  of 
the  evolution  of  the  chemical  elements,  appar- 
ently from  one  original  element  in  the  far-off 
hottest  suns  of  the  sky.  Not  only  this,  but 
there  would  seem  to  be  also  an  evolution  of 
chemical  compounds,  which  a  too  intense  heat 
(and  probably  also  cold)  render  impossible. 
The  import  of  such  a  fact  is  very  significant 
for  Life,  since  both  plant  and  animal  are 
chemical  compounds.  To  be  sure  they  are 
something  more.  Protoplasm,  the  so-called 
physical  basis  of  life,  has  a  number  of  com- 
pounds, such  as  phosphates  and  other  salts,  as 
well  as  the  elements  hydrogen,  oxygen,  car- 
bon, nitrogen.  These,  having  been  evolved 


EVOLUTION  OF  CHEMISM.  gg 

and  cooled  down  to  the  vital  scale  of  tempera- 
ture, are  seized  and  employed  by  a  Power  for 
its  end — we  might  call  it  the  Demiurge  of 
Life,  the  creative  principle  of  the  animate 
world.  For  Chemism  of  itself  cannot  produce 
Vitalism,  though  it  be  the  latter 's  immediate 
agent  and  condition.  Nor  is  the  vital  spark 
the  electric  spark,  yet  the  former  doubtless 
employs  a  good  deal  of  electricity,  though 
under  strict  control. 

It  should  be  added  that  the  chemical  ele- 
ments have  something  which  pushes  j>r  di- 
rects them  in  their  evolution  toward  an  end. 
From  the  starry  depths  they  may  be  seen 
dimly  coming  down  this  way  in  a  kind  of  pro- 
gression one  after  the  other,  till  they  reach 
our  Earth's  life-temperature,  when  they  are 
slowly  gripped  by  a  new  sort  of  energy,  and 
from  a  state  of  separation  and  independence 
are  whelmed  into  an  organic  process  of  whose 
round  they  are  the  subordinate  constituents. 
In  other  words,  there  is  interwound  through 
all  Life  a  psychic  factor,  which  has  an  imme- 
diate connection  with  the  physical  element  in 
every  particle,  determining  it  from  within, 
and  propelling  it  forward  by  organic  evolu- 
tion to  the  ultimate  purpose  and  end  of  Life. 
But  there  is  also  an  inorganic  evolution  (as 
above  set  forth)  in  which  the  psychic  factor 
is  certainly  present  and  active  (it  is  neces- 


70  THE  BIOCOSMOS— PRELIMINARY. 

sarily  implied  in  every  kind  of  evolution),  but 
not  yet  fully  internalized  in  the  physical  ele- 
ment, which  it  controls,  therefore,  more  from 
the  outside.  Thus  we  come  anew  to  the  chasm 
which  separates  the  Inorganic  from  the  Or- 
ganic, though  we  have  a  new  line  in  the 
thought-chain  of  their  unity  through  their 
similar  evolution.  Still  their  evolution  re- 
mains twofold,  and  will  not  directly  evolve 
one  into  the  other. 

Necessarily  the  alert  reader  is  bound  to 
ask,  Whence  comes  this  psychic  factor,  which 
exercises  such  sway  in  both  evolutions, 
though  this  sway  be  different  in  each  case? 
That  same  subtle,  yet  all-dominating  Psyche 
we  have  seen  ordering  the  Cosmos  as  well  as 
the  Diacosmos,  even  if  somewhat  externally. 
Indeed  all  Nature  must  have  this  psychical 
side  by  virtue  of  its  primal  origination  from 
the  Universe  as  Self.  And  the  ultimate  sci- 
ence of  Nature  must  be  psychical  for  the  same 
reason;  moreover  our  individual  Psyche 
could  otherwise  never  come  into  communion 
with  her,  could  never  understand  her  action 
or  penetrate  her  meaning.  Scientific  investi- 
gation is  finally  the  Psyche  of  the  scientist 
trying  to  sleuth  the  Psyche  of  Nature,  se- 
creted and  entangled  in  its  material  body. 
The  one  must  recognize  and  indeed  identify 


EVOLUTION  OF  CHEMISM.  .    7^ 

the  other  in  alien  wrappage,  which,  however, 
as  vital  becomes  an  integral  part  of  it. 

Thus  we  may  trace  an  outline  of  inorganic 
evolution  antecedent  to  and  preparatory  for 
organic  evolution.  It  should  be  stated  that 
the  above  exposition  follows  mainly  the  lines 
of  Lockyer,  whose  methods  and  results  have 
been  sharply  attacked.  Doubtless  his  work 
must  be  corrected  and  extended ;  still  it  seems 
to  us  to  be  in  the  right  direction. 

So  in  struggling  to  reach  back  of  our  Bio- 
cosmos  to  its  sources,  we  come  upon^the 
chemical  elements  of  it  first,  which  seem 
ready  and  indeed  striving  to  unite  in  the  high- 
est act  of  Life.  But  of  themselves  they  are 
quite  powerless  for  such  an  end.  It  is  true 
that  many  scientists  seek  to  express  the  vital 
principles  in  terms  of  Chemism.  But  that 
simply  disintegrates  and  deadens  the  living 
thing,  leaving  out  its  very  essence,  namely, 
Life.  What  is  the  link  here  missing!  It  is 
at  this  point  that  the  ghostly  intruder  again 
appears,  that  Psyche,  who  has  so  often  trou- 
bled the  scientist,  and  in  her  spectral  way 
makes  the  transition  through  Chemism  from 
Unlife  to  Life. 

So  the  vast  separation  of  Nature  has  in  the 
Biocosmos  reached  the  much-divided  realm  of 
living  individuals,  everyone  of  which  has 
within  itself  the  round  of  the  Psyche, 


72  THE  BIOCOSMOS— PRELIMINARY. 

though  still  incorporate  in  the  Physis.  Each 
separate  particle  of  the  Universe  now  is  striv- 
ing to  be  complete  within  itself,  to  have  the 
process  of  the  All  as  its  own,  not  merely  out- 
side of  itself  but  also  inside.  It  lives  as  in- 
dividual, be  it  the  microscopic  cell  or  the 
total  Earth-life,  for  the  latter  is  but  a  small 
vital  speck  in  the  entire  Cosmos,  as  we  have 
already  seen.  The  limits  of  Earth-life  make 
it  an  individual  bounded  in  Space  and  Time 
like  the  rest  of  us,  moreover  it  as  living  indi- 
vidual is  also  but  a  transition  between 
birth  and  death,  a  stage  of  the  process  of  the 
universe,  the  third  stage,  which  is  finally  to 
return  as  a  whole  to  its  cosmical  origin. 
Geologists  tell  us  that  we  in  our  Earth-life 
are  just  now  passing  out  of  the  last  glacial 
epoch  of  the  Pleistocene,  into  a  succeeding 
epoch  of  heat  or  perchance  torridity.  So  the 
terrestrial  individual  has  its  periods,  which, 
like  man's,  are  to  be  passed . through.  But 
the  fact  which  is  here  impressed  on  the  mind 
is  that  the  Biocosmos  is  individuated  both  as 
a  whole  and  in  its  minutest  parts,  the  infinite 
divisibility  of  Nature  seeking  to  turn  into 
the  living  act. 

III.  The  origin  of  Life  invariably  comes 
to  the  front  in  any  thorough-going  compre- 
hension of  the  vital  principle.  Its  beginning 
in  time  on  our  Earth  has  been  quite  freely 


LIFE'S  GENESIS.  73 

announced  by  science,  of  course,  with  consid- 
erable difference  in  the  number  of  years. 
Then  comes  the  question:  How  did  it  begin! 
One  scientist  has  suggested  that  Life  was 
originally  brought  to  our  globe  from  the  out- 
side, by  a  falling  meteorite  perchance.  This 
view  (if  it  be  not  a  joke)  leaves  the  vital 
starting  point  where  it  was.  Then  there  is 
the  theory  of  special  creation,  which  need  not 
trouble  us  further.  Still  again  rises  the  view 
that  the  origin  of  life,  the  origin  of  the  world, 
the  origin  of  man,  are  inexplicable,  unknow- 
able ;  that  origin  itself  is  a  contradictory  con- 
ception and  had  better  be  dropped  from  our 
thought.  Darwin,  "who  wrote  the  Origin  of 
Species,  particularly  disclaims  any  knowl- 
edge -of  the  Origin  of  Life. 

Still  the  biologist  has  to  treat  what  he 
calls  Biogenesis  (the  genesis  of  Life),  if  this 
be  not  indeed  the  dominating  theme  of  his 
science.  Two  theories  have  hitherto  been  held 
in  this  field.  The  one  maintains  that  every 
living  thing  springs  from  an  antecedent 
individual  which  is  alive;  it  requires  Life  to 
beget  Life.  Such  a  view  always  presupposes 
the  vital  individual.  Still  the  mind  must 
query,  how  did  the  primal  living  thing  get 
to  be!  But  science  on  t1>o  whole  shuns  this 
question — for  many,  people  the  really  vital 


74  THE  BIOCOSMOS— PRELIMINARY. 

one — and  confines  itself  to  the  round  of  indi- 
vidual Life. 

The  second  theory  of  the  Origin  of  Life 
has  long  been  known  as  Spontaneous  or 
Equivocal  Generation,  and  now  goes  under 
the  scientific  name  of  Abiogenesis.  Here  the 
point  is  that  Life  is  sometimes  generated  out 
of  non-vifal  matter.  Popular  belief  has  not 
ceased  to  cling  to  spontaneous  generation  in 
certain  cases.  Decayed  meat  is  still  supposed 
to  breed  maggots ;  and  horse-hairs  in  stag- 
nant pools  will  turn  to  little  snakes— every 
farmer-boy  has  seen  them.  Formerly  many 
scientific  men,  from  Aristotle  down,  held  the 
same  view.  But  the  current  began  to  set  in 
the  other  way,  especially  when  Kedi  (1638) 
showed  that  meat  would  decay  without,  pro- 
ducing maggots  if  protected  from  flies  and 
other  insects.  The  newly  discovered  micro- 
scope revealed  a  new  world  of  infusoria 
which  were  for  a  long  time  deemed  to  be  spon- 
taneously generated.  But  this  position  was 
attacked,  and  affer  many  experiments  oft  re- 
peated with  new  precautions,  the  science  of 
to-day  with  a  few  lingering  exceptions  doubt- 
less has  declared  itself  against  Spontaneous 
Generation.  It  has  succeeded  in  sterilizing 
quite  all  supposed  microbe-breeding  liquids, 
chiefly  by  boiling,  as  the  component  proto- 
plasm enters  usually  into  its  heat-rigor  below 


LIFE'S  GENESIS.  75 

the  boiling  point.  Yet  there  are  exceptions: 
for  instance,  the  spores  of  bacteria  cannot  be 
boiled  to  death,  but  must  be  burned — heated 
to  nearly  a  hundred  degrees  (F.)  above  the 
boiling-point. 

Still  there  is  difficulty  with  this  conception 
of  Biogenesis,  and  the  difficulty  springs  from 
Evolution.  If  our  planet  evolved  from  an 
inorganic  condition  to  an  organic  at  some 
time  in  the  past  when  it  had  cooled  down  to 
a  heat-point  consistent  with  Life,  as  is  gen- 
erally said  by  scientists,  there  must  have  been 
a  transition  from  a  pre-vital  to  a  vital  stage. 
Which,  then,  has  to  go  to  the  wall  as  a  uni- 
versal principle  of  Nature,  Evolution,  or  Bio- 
genesis! Thus  we  run  back  again  to  the 
edge  of  that  chasm  between  the  animate  and 
inanimate  realms  which  Evolution  has  not 
yet  been  able  fully  to  pass.  The  most  colossal 
step  in  Nature,  that  from  Matter  to  Life, 
or  from  the  dead  to  the  living,  Science  with 
her  experimental  proof  has  not  been  able  to 
take.  Meanwhile  Nature's  laboratory  before 
our  eye  is  always  doing  just  thus :  transform- 
ing the  inorganic  into  the  organic.  It  may  be 
said  that  in  a  way  the  inorganic  is  forever 
seeking  to  become  organic,  it  wants  to  live. 
The  end  and  scope  of  Cosmos  and  Diacosmos 
is  to  be  Biocosmos,  in  which  they  have  their 
higher  fulfillment. 


76  THE  BIOCOSMOS— PRELIMINARY. 

The  result  is  that  a  careful  examination  of 
the  scientific  mind  of  today,  which  holds  to 
Evolution,  will  find  a  lurking  unconscious  be- 
lief in  Abiogenesis,  notwithstanding  the  con- 
scious denial.  Undoubtedly  in  plant  and  ani- 
mal as  individuals  all  life  comes  from  life, 
passes  from  the  living  parent  to  the  living 
offspring.  But  the  third  great  form  of  life, 
besides  that  of  Plant  and  Animal,  Earth- 
life  we  may  call  it,  has  a  decided  tendency  to 
transcend  this  narrow  vital  cycle  from 
individual  to  individual,  and  to  whelm  into 
Life's  limited  round  the  quite  boundless 
realm  of  Unlife — to  transmute  the  non-vital 
element  of  its  being  into  the  vital.  The  scien- 
cies  of  Plant  and  Animal  (Botany  and  Zool- 
ogy), cling  to  the  Life  individual  as  their 
theme,  wherein  matter  is  already  organized. 
But  how,  whence  did  they  (Plant  and  Ani- 
mal) get  organized!  The  life-principle  is 
taken  for  granted  in  this  single  bit  of  earth 
called  a  living  thing,  and  its  process  set  forth 
in  detail  by  the" science  of  Biology;  still  back 
of  this  process  works  another  process,  with 
the  transformation  of  its  inorganic  side  into 
its  organic.  Most  scientists  agree  that  this 
had  to  take  place  once,  according  to  Evolu- 
tion; but  it  is  probably  taking  place  all  the 
time.  Every  living  thing  has  to  die,  has  to 
go  back  to  the  beginning  and  be  dipped  again 


LIFE'S  GENESIS.  77 

in  the  original  inorganic  element  whence  it 
arose.  All  organic  bodies  have  this  fate  of 
death  and  dust  hung  over  them  from  birth. 
Such  a  transition,  the  end  of  the  organism,  is 
but  a  stage  of  the  larger  Earth-life,  which  is 
perpetually  individualizing  and  re-vitalizing 
its  non- vital  part,  this  being  much  the  greater, 
as  already  said. 

Thus  we  may  well  affirm  both  kinds  of  gen- 
eration— inorganic  and  organic — each  within 
its  sphere.  Biogenesis  rules  inside  the  round 
of  the  individual  Life,  of  Plant  and  Animal ; 
Abiogenesis  cannot  be  eliminated  from  Life 
conceived  as  a  totality,  from  the  Earth-life  in 
its  completeness.  All  three  forms  of  vital 
manifestation — Plant,  Animal,  Earth — must 
be  considered  in  the  Biocosmos,  which  treats 
them  separately,  as  well  as  in  their  process 
together. 

It  is,  therefore,  highly  improbable  that  the 
transition  from  Unlife  to  Life  took  place 
just  once  (or  perchance  a  few  times)  on  our 
Earth  many  millions  of  years  ago,  and  that 
since  then  Life  has  proceeded  by  its  own  in- 
ner evolution.  Science  thus  seems  to  be  tak- 
ing its  cue  from  its  old  enemy,  Theology, 
which  makes  all  living  things  originate  pri- 
marily by  divine  fiat.  Interesting  still,  as 
showing  the  aspiration  of  science,  is  the  at- 
tempt of  Basttan  to  reach  the  true  archebiosis 


78  THE  BIOCOSMOS— PRELIMINARY. 

or  the  beginning  of  Life,  though  Pasteur  ex- 
perimentally refuted  the  experiments  on 
which  he  based  his  conclusion.  More  sugges- 
tive still  is  the  story  of  the  Batliybios  (or 
Deeplife),  in  whose  mazes  both  Haeckel  and 
Huxley,  most  eminent  scientists,  got  entang- 
led. Masses  of  animal  matter  had  been  found, 
it  was  claimed,  strewn  on  the  bottom  of  the 
ocean  at  a  great  depth  (more  than  2,000  fath- 
oms), in  beds  thirty  feet  thick.  Here  then 
was  supposed  to  be  the  original  protoplasmic 
life-stuff  (Protobioticon)  in  the  warm  tropi- 
cal seas  not  far  from  the  Canary  Islands  (so 
reported  by  Haeckel,  and  at  first  accepted  by 
Huxley).  Thus  the  missing  link  between  the 
Inorganic  and  the  Organic  had  been  actually 
found,  and  the  rejoicing  was  somewhat  simi- 
lar to  that  produced  by  the  discovery  of  the 
more  famous  missing  link  between  man  and 
the  ape  in  the  fossil  Pithecanthropos  (ape- 
man)  of  Java.  But  science  now  declares  that 
the  Bathybios  is  a  delusion,  though  the  sup- 
position lay  near  that  the  strange  Sargosso 
Sea  in  the  midst  of  the  Atlantic  (still  a  mys- 
terious phenomenon  in  a  number  of  ways), 
might  have  been  the  original  source  of  Earth- 
life,  which  started  in  the  water  somewhere, 
according  to  most  scientists.  Perhaps,  too,  it 
still  might  be  regarded  as  the  reservoir  in 
which  Earth-life,  ever  passing  away,  is  fed 


METHODS  OF  LIFE'S  GENESIS.  79 

from  Unlife,  and  thus  re-vitalized  from  its 
primordial  fountain.  Purely  speculative  are 
all  such  suggestions,  and  yet  they  hint  the  un- 
conscious aspiration,  so  deeply  implanted  in 
science,  to  get  to  the  sources  of  Life.  Already 
in  antiquity  the  conception  of  an  universal 
genesis  was  not  unknown ;  the  Greek  philoso- 
phers threw  out  flashes  of  it,  and  ancient  Ho- 
mer has  suggested  animal  transformation  in 
that  remarkable  symbol  called  the  Old  Man 
of  the  Sea,  Proteus  with  his  multitudinous 
metamorphoses — our  latest  science  saying 
that  life  and  man  arose  in  the  sea,  of  which 
process  Proteus  may  be  imagined  as  a  far- 
off  prototype.  The  Roman  poet  Lucretius 
also  suggested  a  common  genesis  of  plant 
and  animal  from  the  All-Mother,  Earth.  Thus 
the  philosophers  and  poets  have  uttered  long 
since  the  inner  bent  and  aspiration  of  Nature 
which  the  scientists  also  reveal  in  their  way 
which  way  is  not  the  by-gone  philosophic  or 
poetic  insight,  but  the  modern  prosaic  indus- 
try of  investigation. 

IV.  Another  set  of  terms  pretaining  to  the 
Origin  of  Life,  Science  has  elaborated  along 
with  the  conceptions  expressed  by  them.  Ev- 
erybody has  noticed  that  the  living  individual 
produces  its  like;  the  acorn  will  not  produce 
a  hickory  tree,  a  hen's  egg  a  turkey,  a  cut- 
ting from  a  grape-vine  a  fig.  This  principle 


80  THE  BIOCOSMOS— PRELIMINARY. 

has  been  endowed  with  a  technical  name 
Homogenesis,  the  genesis  of  like  Life  from 
like — of  course  through  the  individual.  The 
living  organism  reproduces  its  species,  it  is 
said;  species  includes  those  of  a  kind.  But 
the  species  are  many  and  very  diverse,  even 
if  alike  in  certain  characteristics.  Evolution, 
however,  demands  that  these  diverse  species 
have  a  unity  of  origin,  and  thus  clashes  with 
Homogenesis,  quite  as  we  saw  its  thrust 
against  Biogenesis.  But  the  collision  now  is 
inside  the  realm  of  Life,  not  of  the  organic 
with  the  inorganic.  Thus  Evolution  creates 
difficulty  with  what  seems  an  immediate  sen- 
suous fact:  the  descent  of  like  Life  from  like. 
On  the  other  hand  there  has  been  some  be- 
lief, both  popular  and  scientific,  in  the  oppo- 
site doctrine  known  in  the  books  as  Hetero- 
genesis,  the  genesis  of  the  unlike  Life  through 
the  individual:  or  as  is  often  said,  the  like 
produces  the  unlike  (an  expression  not  logi- 
cally correct).  Very  wide-spread  is  the  be- 
lief that  a  vegetable  may  sometimes  produce 
or  become  an  animal,  and  the  reverse;  one 
kind  of  Life  is  transmutable  into  another— 
quite  as  we  noted  people  believing  that  a  non- 
vital  object,  like  a  horse  hair,  might  turn  vital 
and  crawl.  In  poetry  and  mythology,  with- 
out doubt  resting  on  popular  faith  originally, 
is  found  the  doctrine  of  metamorphosis 


METHODS  OF  LIFE'S  GENESIS.  g^ 

throughout  the  world.  Of  course  such  cred- 
ence is  directly  opposed  to  science  which, 
however,  has  given  us  the  remarkable  trans- 
formation of  the  butterfly  and  other  insects 
till  the  return  to  the  first  shape.  But  this  is 
not  Heterogenesis  proper,  which  the  scientific 
mind  on  the  whole  is  inclined  to  deny. 

Now  the  fact  is  that  Life  as  a  whole, -the 
Earth-life,  has  brought  forth  many  very  di- 
verse individuals  and  species,  from  the 
amceba  to  man.  Indeed,  the  ever-varying 
forms  of  both  Plant  and  Animal  are  more 
striking  than  anything  else  about  them.  This 
diversity  of  living  Nature  in  the  matter  of 
species  is  what  started  Darwin  on  the  road 
to  find  their  unity.  The  Earth-life,  accord- 
ingly, has  been  heterogenetic,  producing  vi- 
tal difference  in  abundant  quantity;  on  the 
other  hand  the  individual  life  of  Plant  and 
Animal  is  homogenetic,  producing  the  like  in 
its  offshoots.  Thus  the  universal  Life  in  its 
productivity  shows  a  character  quite  opposite 
to  the  individual  Life,  which  the  scientist  so 
fully  records.  It  must  bring  forth  the  unlike 
as  well  as  the  like,  difference  as  well  as  same- 
ness; in  fact,  these  are  two  sides  of  the  one 
process  of  total  Earth-life  which  must  have 
begotten  the  present  variety  of  Plant  and 
Animal  (Heterogenesis)  during  its  long  con- 
tinuance, and  which  also  includes  the  repeti- 


g2  THE  BIOCOSMOS— PRELIMINARY. 

tion  of  the  individual  life  (Homogenesis)  of 
Nature. 

At  this  point  we  are  to  note  another  stage 
of  the  vital  act  which  lies  intermediate  be- 
tween the  f oregoing  extremes.  It  is  this :  the 
individual  does  not  produce  his  like  wholly, 
but  always  with  some  change ;  no  child  is  quite 
the  same  as  the  parent,  even  if  similar.  The 
great  diversity  of  species  is  brought  about 
by  slight  differences  ever  increasing  through 
heredity.  This  is  the  fact  so  strongly  en- 
forced by  Darwin  in  accounting  for  the  origin 
of  species.  The  like,  therefore,  does  not  pro- 
duce the  like  or  the  unlike  altogether,  but 
what  may  be  called  the  similar,  which  grows 
more  and  more  toward  the  different.  No 
name  has  been  given  by  science,  as  far  as  we 
are  aware,  to  this  important  kind  of  genesis, 
but  we  may  call  it  in  correspondence  with  the 
other  two  designations  Homoiogenesis,  or 
genesis  through  the  similar.  The  term  re- 
calls the  dispute  in  the  early  Church  regard- 
ing the  nature  of  Christ,  when  the  two  theo- 
logical parties  'were  respectively  named 
Homoousian  and  Homoiousian.  To  the  Dar- 
winists particularly  the  conception  of  Homo- 
iogenesis is  much  more  significant  than  either 
of  the  other  two  sorts  of  genesis,  being  really 
the  mediating  link  which  connects  the  unity 
and  variation  of  species,  and  upon  which  Nat- 


METHODS   OF  LIFE'S   GENESIS.  g3 

ural  Selection  does  its  work.  The  Earth-life 
may  be  conceived  as  unfolding  from  its  first 
protoplasmic  sameness  into  the  latest  differ- 
entiation through  this  mediating  Homoiogen- 
esis,  which  thus  is  in  its  way  a  bridge  be- 
tween the  beginning  and  end  of  vital  forms, 
especially  in  the  view  of  Darwin,  in  whose 
mind,  however,  the  Earth-life  is  more  implied 
than  expressed. 

Here  we  are  to  note  the  new  phase  of  Bio- 
genesis, which  springs  from  the  so-called  Doc- 
trine of  Mutation,  or  the  sudden  birth  of  a 
different  species  from  that  of  the  parent. 
This  theory  was  some  years  ago  brought  to 
the  notice  of  the  scientific  world  specially  by 
Hugo  De  Vries,  a  Dutch  botanist,  who  ob- 
served a  flower,  the  primrose,  bringing  forth, 
not  merely  a  new  individual  similar  to  itself, 
but  a  new  species  quite  distinct  from  itself. 
So  Heterogenesis  again  came  to  the  front, 
now  supported  by  the  close  observation  of 
the  trained  scientist.  De  Vries  does  not  deny 
the  Darwinian  evolution  by  slight  differences, 
but  grafts  upon  it  his  additional  principle. 
Thus  there  would  seem  to  be  at  work  in  Na- 
ture both  kinds  of  generation  of  species — 
the  slow  and  the  instantaneous.  This  brings 
a  fresh  conception  into  science.  It  would  ap- 
pear that  every  kind  of  plant  and  animal  may 
vary  in  an  hitherto  unsuspected  way,  namely, 


g4  THE  BIOCOSMOS— PRELIMINARY, 

in  the  speed  of  specific  reproduction.  Some 
have  the  power  of  persisting  in  about  the 
same  organism  for  countless  geologic  ages, 
like  the  well-known  Lingula,  which  is  still 
alive  from  the  Devonian  Period.  On  the  oth- 
er hand  there  are  ancient  species  which,  after 
much  variation,  have  died  out,  seemingly  hav- 
ing exhausted  their  elemental  life-stuff.  The 
suggestion  rises  that  there  may  be  construct- 
ed a  gamut  which  shows  the  varying  ability 
of  each  plant  and  animal  to  reproduce  new 
species.  Still  further,  it  is  declared  that  this 
power  of  specific  reproduction  has  its  periods 
of  rise,  culmination,  and  decline  in  the  life 
of  each  species,  vegetal  and  animal.  One  is 
inclined  to  think  that  the  generation  of  an- 
other species  is  a  higher  and  more  exhaust- 
ing act  than  the  generation  of  another  indi- 
vidual simply  like  the  parent.  Interesting  is 
the  fact  that  every  living  thing  bears  in  it 
the  tendency  to  break  out  the  bounds  of  its 
birth,  and  show  a  limit-transcending  quality; 
it  will  not  be  'confined  to  the  transmitted 
forms  of  its  species.  To  be  sure  only  a  few 
will  burst  the  barriers  and  move  on  a  new 
line,  though  probably  all  possess  somewhat 
of  the  same  impulse.  Those  capable  of  mak- 
ing the  transition  from  the  old  species  and 
of  reconstructing  one  of  their  own  may  be 
deemed  the  geniuses  of  the  animal  and  vege- 


METHODS  OF  LIFE'S  GENESIS.  §5 

tal  kingdoms.  Such  deviations  from  the 
normal  type  have  long  been  known  to  the 
gardener  and  the  breeder  who  have  given 
them  the  popular  name  of  "  sports, "  which, 
from  being  once  deemed  mere  freaks  of  Na- 
ture, have  now  become  a  recognized  part  of 
the  theory  of  the  origin  of  species;  so  the 
genesis  of  Life  has  traveled  back  and  taken 
up  again  Heterogenesis. 

Here  it  may  be  added  that  man  in  his  orig- 
inal separation  from  his  ape-like  ancestor  has 
been  considered  a  "sport"  by  certain  anthro- 
pologists. That  is,  far  back  somewhere  in  the 
Tertiary  Period  the  common  progenitor  of 
ape  and  man  brought  forth  a  remarkable  devi- 
ation from  his  own  regular  type  which  then 
and  there  bifurcated  for  all  future  time  into 
the  simian  and  human  lines  of  evolution,  as 
we  see  them  today.  From  this  point  of  view 
we  have  to  regard  ourselves  as  having  orig- 
inated in  the  "sport"  of  a  pithecoid — a  fact 
of  ancestral  as  well  as  scientific  interest, 
though  its  truth  is  questioned. 

Truly  the  time  reflects  itself  not  only  in  the 
science  of  Nature,  but  in  Nature  herself,  who 
is  found  to  possess  all  our  human  tendencies, 
though  in  a  very  remote,  implicit  way.  Even 
the  plant  seems  to  have  its  reformers,  its  bar- 
rier-bursters, its  prophets  leading  it  out  of 
the  old  into  the  new.  That  famous  little  pri- 


86  THE  BIOCOSMOS— PRELIMINARY. 

mula  of  De  Vries,  a  kind  of  a  runaway  from 
the  garden  of  civilisation  or  perchance  a  floral 
rebel,  has  the  appearance  of  having  wearied 
of  the  transmitted  order,  of  its  inherited  spe- 
cies and  of  its  narrow  social  bounds;  then, 
having  somehow  gotten  the  opportunity,  it 
makes  a  break  for  liberty  and  establishes  a 
new  species  which  perpetuates  itself  and  thus 
gives  a  peculiar  flowery  immortality  to  its 
founder  who  otherwise  had  died  merely  a 
nameless  individual.  In  like  manner  we  still 
hear  of  the  founder  of  States — Romulus,  The- 
seus and  so  on.  Thus  the  work  of  the  Dutch 
botanist  started  a  considerable  ripple  in  biol- 
ogy and  science  generally,  and  if  we  listen 
closely,  we  may  catch  an  echo  of  it  in  the  in- 
stitutional world  of  man. 

V.  Already  Earth-life  has  been  mentioned 
a  number  of  times,  and  a  general  conception 
of  the  significance  lurking  in  this  compound 
word  has  been  pre-supposed  in  the  reader. 
Some  special  remarks  upon  its  meaning  may 
here  be  given,  "to  be  followed  later  with  a  view 
of  it  in  the  total  order  of  the  Biocosmos.  It 
is  correlated  with  Plant-life  and  Animal-life, 
to  which  it  is  joined  in  the  present  work  as 
the  third  kind  of  Life,  namely  Earth-life. 
Evidently  it  signifies  the  sum  total  of  all  ter- 
restrial vitality,  which,  as  far  as  we  know,  is 
the  sum  total  of  life  as  such  in  the  universe. 


EARTH-LIFE.  87 

It  includes  not  only  plant  and  animal,  the 
microscopic  and  the  macroscopic  organisms, 
but  also  what  may  be  called  .the  extra-sensible 
life-world,  from  wilich  the  seen  life-world 
emerges  and  into  which  it  returns.  The  tran- 
sition, already  mentioned,  from  the  Inorganic 
to  the  Organic,  and  back  again,  must  lie  in 
the  realm  of  Earth-life,  and  cannot  be  left  out 
of  a  complete  view  of  Biology,  to  which  it  has 
become  as  necessary  as  Ether  is  to  Physics, 
though  both  be  speculative.  The  rise,  bloom 
and  e vanishment  of  all  individual  life  take 
place  in  and  through  the  Earth-life,  and  con- 
stitutes its  process,  or  at  least  a  part  of  the 
same.  Vegetal  and  animal  forms  have  their 
vital  round,  appearing  and  disappearing ;  but 
this  vital  round  is  but  a  stage  of  a  far  larger 
vital  round,  that  of  Earth-life. 

In  this  connection  we  impinge  upon  the 
question :  Is  there  a  given  amount  of  vital 
stuff  in  the  universe — a  fixed  quantity,  so 
much  and  no  more  1  This  corresponds  to  the 
well-known  law  of  the  conservation  of  energy, 
of  which  one  form  maybe  deemed  vital  energy. 
The  Earth-life  can  be  regarded  as  the  store- 
house of  all  individual  life,  both  arising  and 
departing — passing  from  the  Inorganic  to  the 
Organic,  and  from  the  Organic  to  the  Inor- 
ganic, in  a"  ceaseless  cycle.  In  general  one 
can  see  the  means  which  the  Earth-life  takes 


gg  THE  BIOCOSMOS— PRELIMINARY. 

in  order  to  produce  its  vital  round:  it  indi- 
viduates a  primal  life-stuff  (often  called  pro- 
toplasm) into  innumerable  plants  and  ani- 
mals which  still  further  develop  into  species, 
families,  orders,  etc.  The  living  individual, 
to  which,  as  microscopic  cell  or  as  large  or- 
ganism, Biology  has  quite  confined  itself  hith- 
erto, must  be  grasped  ultimately  as  but  one 
stage  of  the  total  terrestrial  process  of  Life. 
The  vast  reservoir  of  vital  energy  out  of 
which  the  living  individual  of  every  sort  is 
born  and  to  which  it  returns  through  death, 
belongs  to  Earth-life,  whose  chief  struggle  is 
to  transform  the  overwhelming  non-vital 
mass  of  our  globe  into  the  vital,  which,  how- 
ever, never  gets  beyond  one  part  in  ten  mil- 
lion, according  to  an  estimate  already  cited. 
So  this  fixed  quantity  of  Life-stuff  (if  it  be 
fixed),  seems  always  to  be  fighting  for  itself, 
namely,  for  Life  against  Unlife.  An  eminent 
authority  in  geology  has  stated  that  the  sum 
total  of  Life  in  the  past  geologic  ages  appears 
to  be  about  the  same  as  it  is  at  present,  though 
its  differentiation  into  plants  and  animals  has 
been  very  different  in  different  periods.  If 
that  be  so,  it  would  seem  that  the  Organic 
is  not  gaining  on  the  Inorganic,  but  barely 
holding  its  own  in  the  battle  with  the  non- 
vital  world  environing  it  on  every  side  to  in- 
finity— which  drawn  battle  has  been  going  on 


EARTH-LIFE.  gg 

these  hundred  million  of  years.  In  such  a 
view  the  earliest  vital  mass  (Protobioticon) 
started  with  a  given  amount  which  it  has  been 
evolving  ever  since  into  higher  and  higher  or- 
ganisms, measured  by  a  standard  which  can 
only  be  psychical.  The  quantity  of  Life  has 
then  not  increased  since  its  first  launching  as 
a  little  speck  in  the  ocean  of  its  gigantic  en- 
emy; but  its  quality  has  improved  instead.- 
Thus  the  Earth-life,  conceived  as  all  vitality 
embodied  in  a'  single  shape,  has  had  the  func- 
tion to  evolve  itself  from  its  primordial  stuff 
through  individuation  toward  the  perfect  or- 
ganism, which  is  now  considered  to  be  man's 
body. 

Such,  then,  is  the  outer  struggle  between 
the  Organic  and  the  Inorganic  in  the  develop- 
ment of  Earth-life,  but  this  has  also  what 
may  be  deemed  its  inner  struggle.  Each  sin- 
gle living  thing  in  the  reproduction  of  itself 
must  draw  on  the  contents  of  the  reservoir 
of  Life,  which  holds  a  limited  quantity  ac- 
cording to  supposition.  Well-known  is  the 
ability  of  a  pair  of  rabbits  through  propaga- 
tion to  monopolize  the  Earth-life  of  a  given 
territory,  unless  vigorously  suppressed  by 
other  vital  forms,  including  man.  There  are 
protozoa  capable  of  multiplying  at  such  a 
rate  that  all  living  existence  would  turn  back 
to  protozoan  unless  the  increase  be  stopped 


90  THE  BIOCOSMOS— PRELIMINARY. 

by  destruction.  Plants  likewise  have  the 
same  prolific  energy  in  tapping  the  general 
source  of  vitality  that  they  seem  able  to  ab- 
sorb it  if  not  halted  in  their  reproduction.  It 
would  appear  that  each  living  species  has  the 
bent  to  take  the  whole  Earth-life  as  its  own 
for  its  kind.  Moreover,  all  living  things, 
plant  and  animal,  must  have  food,  whose  sup- 
ply is  limited ;  the  individuals  of  the  same  spe- 
cies would  at  last  fall  into  conflict  over  suste- 
nance. The  surface  of  the  globe  would  soon 
be  too  small  for  the  exploitation  of  any  vig- 
orous species  in  the  matter  of  propagation 
and  subsistence. 

Thus  the  Earth-life  in  its  totality  has  its 
bounds;  though  it  includes  all  individual 
plants  and  animals,  it  too  is  an  individual. 
Within  it  each  living  thing  arises  and  passes 
away ;  has  it  the  same  destiny  ?  That  is.  again 
the  problem  of  the  extinction  of  our  globe, 
which  springs  upon  us  in  these  scientific  days 
from  many  sides.  The  Earth-life  is  still  going 
on,  youthful,  itjnay  be,  but  more  probably  in 
its  middle  age — the  only  individual  of  its  sort 
in  the  universe.  Herein  it  differs  from  all  veg- 
etal and  animal  existence,  and  of  course  from 
us.  A  thousand  years  of  Earth-life  is  hardly 
a  day,  in  comparison  with  our  lives.  What 
its  vital  round  may  be,  and  how  long  it  will 
last,  can  only  be  guessed.  What,  however,  is 


EARTH-LIFE.  91 

manifest,  is  that  the  living  things  on  our  globe 
— plant  and  animal,  protozoa  and  metazoa — 
have  a  relatively  brief  duration,  and  seem 
but  instruments  of  a  total  Life,  helping  to 
bring  it  forth  and  then  vanishing.  Still  they 
participate  in  it,  though  constituting  but  a 
little  stream  of  flickering  individualities  which 
flash  in  existence  for  a  shorter  or  longer  mo- 
ment. The  vital  stream  is  indeed  a  small  one, 
if  we  contrast  it  with  the  circumambient  non- 
vital  matter  through  which  it  seems  to  be 
trickling  down  Time.  Each  wee  life  of  a  mi- 
croscopic amoeba  is  a  petty  flash  of  this  gen- 
eral Earth-life  which  manifests  itself  in  the 
vast  complex  of  living  individuals,  plant  and 
animal,  and  yet  is  therein  an  individual  itself. 
Accordingly  it  is  said  that  the  Earth  with 
all  its  Life  must  pass  away,  like  one  of  its 
own  brief  micro-organisms,  when  its  round 
is  completed.  Thus  it  is  merely  repeating  its 
own  history  in  the  small  and  smallest  of  its 
living  individuals,  each  of  which  foreshadows 
its  fate,  for  it,  too,  must  vanish.  The  cycle 
of  our  Life  from  birth  to  demise  is,  therefore, 
the  impress  of  the  Earth-life  upon  us,  and 
upon  every  object  alive.  The  vital  spark 
which  comes  from  it  is  endowed  with  death 
as  well  as  with  birth,  both  of  which  are  like- 
wise its  own.  It  reproduces  itself  in  its  chil- 
dren. To  be  sure  this  universal  individual, 


92  THE  BIOCOSMOS— PRELIMINARY. 

Earth-life,  has  not  yet  gone  through  its  one 
cycle.  A  tick  on  the  clock  of  the  universe  is 
an  easy  million  of  years ;  the  period  of  Earth- 
life,  we  are  told,  must  be  many  myriads  of 
millenniums.  And  still  the  end  must  come  in 
Time. 

If  this  Earth-life,  like  one  of  its  minutest 
microbes,  goes  through  the  process  of  birth 
and  cessation,  is  it  not  itself  but  one  evanes- 
cent individual  of  the  All-Life  (Pambiosis)  ? 
Some  such  conception  rises  and  has  been  held, 
but  it  lies  beyond  all  proof  and  stretches  the 
most  elastic  limits  of  thinking.  It  is  conceiv- 
able that  many  millions  of  planets  like  ours 
are  dead  and  buried  throughout  the  dark 
graveyard  of  space;  indeed,  whole  suns  and 
their  systems  are  extinct,  having  lived  their 
day,  and  are  awaiting  resurrection  into  light 
and  life.  So  some  astronomers  have  reported 
to  us,  fortifying  hope.  Still  we  have  at  last 
to  take  the  Earth-life  as  individual  in  the  to- 
tal universe,  a  drop,  as  it  were,  in  the  vast 
reservoir;  but  that  there  is  another  drop  of 
life  anywhere  in  the  cosmical  spaces  we 'do 
not  know.  It  is  natural  to  suppose  that  ours 
is  not  the  sole  vital  appearance  in  all  cre- 
ation, or  that  our  conditions  of  life  are  not 
the  only  ones  possible.  For  instance,  a  wholly 
different  heat-scale  from  our  hundred  de- 
grees is  conceivable;  indeed,  every  hundred 


EARTH-LIFE.  93 

degrees  of  the  heat-scale  of  the  universe — 
possibly  a  hundred  thousand  degrees — can 
have  its  corresponding  life,  which  everywhere 
may  be  the  movement  from  the  Inorganic, 
through  the  Organic  to  the  Psychic,  the  latter 
being  the  outcome  and  end  of  Nature. 

Our  Earth-life,  accordingly,  is  for-  us  the  all- 
embracing  Life,  its  final  real  circumscription ; 
but  ideally  we  may  regard  it  as  a  mere  cell 
of  the  universal  Life,  no  more  comparatively 
than  one  of  its  brief  unicellular  organisms,  a 
microbe  of  the  living  Universe.  We  should 
emphasize,  however,  that  each  individual  life, 
minute  as  it  may  be,  has  in  it  the  total  process 
of  the  Earth-life,  which  also  begins,  flourishes 
and  passes  away.  Again  we  have  to  re- think 
and  re-apply  the  thought  that  every  part  of  a 
Whole,  in  order  to  be  such  a  part,  must  have 
in  it  the  movement  of  that  Whole.  Earth- 
life  is,  therefore,  a  needed  element  of  the  Bio- 
cosmos,  which  is  to  include  the  totality  of  Life. 
We  may  here  state  that  science  has  made 
little  use  of  the  conception  of  Earth-life, 
though  it  would  seem  to  be  the  necessary  com- 
plement of  individual  life,  vegetal  and  animal. 
These  two  vital  forms  have  filled  the  horizon 
of  the  biologist.  And  the  past  products  of 
the  Earth  in  its  long  evolution,  organic  and 
inorganic,  have  been  set  forth  in  the  science 
of  Geology,  which  ought  to  reveal  to  us  not 


94  THE  BIOCOSMOS— PRELIMINARY. 

merely  a  dead,  but  a  living  Earth-life  in  its 
process  ever  going  on.  Thus  Botany  and 
Zoology,  both  of  them  essentially  sciences  of 
the  manifold  individual  Life,  would  find  their 
fulfillment  in  the  Earth-life,  the  one  great 
living  organism  creative  of  all  the  rest — the 
one  universal  living  individual  we  may  con- 
sider it  relatively,  even  if  it  too  must  perish 
like  its  own  ephemeral  butterfly. 

Evidently  Life's  struggle  for  existence, 
taken  in  all  its  phases,  embraces  much  more 
than  the  wrestle  of  individual  with  individual 
for  existence.  Let  us  note  the  cases.  (1) 
There  is  first  the  struggle  of  Earth-life  itself 
with  the  overwhelming  mass,  of  Earth's  non- 
vital  matter,  the  never-ending  conflict  be- 
tween the  Organic  and  Inorganic,  whereby 
the  latter  is  in  a  wee  point  transformed  into 
the  former.  (2)  Then  there  is  the  struggle 
of  each  species  seemingly  for  the  whole  of 
this  Earth-life,  whereby  it  falls  into  conflict 
with  other  species.  (3)  Finally,  comes  the 
struggle  of  individual  with  individual  of  the 
same  species  for  their  common  means  of  sub- 
sistence, whereby  results  Natural  Selection. 
It  is  this  last  phase  of  Life's  total  struggle 
for  existence  which  has  been  emphasized  by 
Darwin.  But  the  first  phase,  that  of  Earth- 
life  itself  struggling  with  its  gigantic  enemy, 
is  what  presupposes  and  includes  all  the  rest. 


CELL-LIFE.  95 

And  when  Earth-life  has  run  its  course,  all 
other  kinds  of  Life  will  pass  away  with  it,  as 
it  embraces  them  all.  Great  as  it  is  compared 
to  our  organisms,  it  is  very  small  compared 
to  the  universe — a  little  living  cell  of  the  All, 
we  may  deem  it,  yet  genetic  of  our  micro- 
scopic cells. 

VI.  We  have  touched  here  the  conception 
of  the  cell,  looking  in  the  other  direction,  that 
is,  from  the  large  to  the  small,  and  not  from 
the  small  to  the  large.  Cell-life  with  its  mi- 
nuteness is  in  striking  contrast  to  Earth-life 
with  its  magnitude,  at  least  for  us;  for  we 
naturally  place  ourselves  between  the  two. 
gazing  both  ways  in  wonder.  The  individual 
man  is  ever  pushing  toward  the  infinite,  or 
rather  toward  the  two  infinites,  as  we  may 
call  them  for  the  nonce,  the  infinitely  large 
and  the  infinitely  little — he  being  a  kind  of 
mean  between  the  two  extremes.  In  the  Cos- 
mos we  have  seen  how  he  has  traveled  from 
sun  to  star,  from  the  visible  to  the  remote 
invisible  nebula;  while  in  the  Diacosmos  we 
have  observed  him  moving  in  the  reverse  way, 
toward  the  small  and  smallest  of  the  material 
world- — toward  the  molecule,  atom,  electron, 
perchance  the  etherion.  But  now  in  the  Bio- 
cosmos  we  have  come  upon  its  minutest  in- 
dividuation,  the  cell,  which  bears  within  itself 
the  pivotal  principle  of  life.  It  is  seen  with 


96  THE  BIOCOSMOS— PRELIMINARY. 

the  microscope,  which  is  verily  the  telescope 
reversed,  and  revealing  to  us  a  wholly  new 
world  of  living  individuals.  For  the  cell  has 
life — that  is  its  fundamental  category. 

The  word  cell  is  not  the  best  one  for  the 
thing.  This  is  not  a  hollow  chamber  or  cup 
holding  a  fluid  in  a  wall  or  enclosure ;  at  least 
such  is  not  its  general  character — a  natural 
conception  of  it  from  its  name.  On  the  con- 
trary the  cell  must  be  grasped  in  its  simplest 
form  as  a  mass,  which  tends  to  the  globular 
when  it  is  single,  as  in  a  unicellular  plant. 
Still  it  is  capable  of  assuming  many  forms, 
both  by  itself  (as  in  case  of  the  amoeba),  and 
by  association  with  other  cells.  Sometimes, 
indeed,  this  mass  hollows  itself  out,  and  builds 
for  itself  also  a  pretty  firm  wall  (found  in 
plants  more  than  in  animals) ;  then  it  becomes 
literally  cellular,  though  this  form,  as  before 
said,  is  not  by  any  means  the  prevailing  one. 
Probably  the  earliest  observer  saw  such  cells 
first,  and  gave  the  name  which  is  now  too 
strongly  intrenched  in  the  science  to  be  ex- 
pelled. 

The  next  point  in  the  conception  of  the  cell 
is  to  consider  how  this,  its  mass,  is  organ- 
ized. It  shows  the  following  main  divisions : 
first,  the  central  principle  of  it  is  the  so-called 
nucleus,  a  rounded  definite  shape,  long  ago 
recognized  by  Fontana  (1781),  but  without 


CELL-LIFE.  97 

seeing  its  significance,  which  still  seems  to  be 
growing.  The  second  fact  here  is  that  this 
nucleus  is  in  a  state  of  self-separation;  it  ap- 
pears always  in  the  process  of  giving  off 
other  nuclei,  or  nucleoli,  of  reproducing  itself 
by  a  sort  of  fissiparism  or  segmentation.  The 
third  important  fact  about  the  cell  is  its  mass 
of  formative  material  called  protoplasm, 
which  embosoms  the  nucleus  and  its  process. 
This  protoplasmic  mass  is  described  as  a  vis- 
cous, somewhat  transparent  substance,  often 
quite,  homogeneous,  but  of tener  granulated  or 
even  reticulated.  The  part  that  it  plays  is 
not  yet  settled ;  but  it  may  be  deemed  the  en- 
vironing element  or  body  which  sustains  the 
nucleus,  stimulating  and  possibly  evolving  its 
process.  Whence  it  comes,  or  how  produced 
is  not  known ;  even  whether  it  be  organic  is  a 
question  among  biologists.  Doubtless  it  is 
an  early  stage  (though  not  the  earliest)  of 
that  transitional  bridge  which  reaches  over 
from  the  Inorganic  to  the  Organic — which 
bridge  has  not  yet  been  traversed  by  science, 
yea  not  yet  been  reached  probably.  Still  it 
is  worth  while  to  notice  that  in  this  proto- 
plasmic mass  external  to  the  nucleus  are  float- 
ing numerous  small  bodies,  passive,  seemingly 
non-vital,  probably  rejected  waste  from  the 
laboratory  of  Nature,  which  prepares  this 
protoplasm,  and  which  lies  as  yet  beyond  the 


98  THE  BIOCOSMOS— PRELIMINARY. 

microscope  or  any  chemical  re-action.  In- 
deed, there  is  no  little  discussion  among  biol- 
ogists whether  this  protoplasmic  mass  should 
be  called  living,  though  it  is  hardly  dead  or 
inorganic.  Various  intermediate  terms  have 
been  suggested  in  order  to  avoid  the  difficulty, 
which  predicates  something  living  before  life; 
for  life  is  regarded  as  belonging  to  the  cell- 
organism  as  a  whole  and  not  to  any  of  its 
parts  or  members,  least  of  all  to  the  most  ex- 
ternal part  or  member.  Yet  if  the  cell  as  a 
whole  be  alive,  each  member  of  it  must  share 
in  such  life,  in  order  to  be  a  member  (as  our 
hand  or  finger  is  alive  till  cut  off). 

But  amid  all  these  questions  we  come  back 
to  the  main  process  of  the  cell,  which,  accord- 
ing to  our  conception,  should  start  with  the 
nucleus  as  central  and  germinal,  then  pass 
to  its  self-separation  or  genetic  act,  which  is 
finally  completed  by  the  protoplasm  or  body. 
Thus  the  process  of  cell-life  is  a  continual 
generation  of  itself;  its  function  and,  seem- 
ingly, its  sole  /unction  is  a  ceaseless  repro- 
duction of  its  kind,  and  so  it  is  the  prototype 
of  the  genetic  continuity  of  all  living  things 
through  the  species.  The  individual  cell  be- 
gets the  individual  cell,  and  just  that  is  its 
business — verily  the  primal  business  of  life, 
which  is  to  keep  itself  alive  and  going.  The 
plant  and  animal,  each  of  which  is  a  large 


CELL-LIFE.  99 

number  of  associated  cells,  will  repeat  as  a 
whole,  in  its  generative  process  what  this,  its 
smallest  vital  constituent  is  doing,  undoubt- 
edly with  great  variety.  Still  this  cell-indi- 
vidual is  its  prototypal  unit,  not  simply  ideal 
but  actual  and  visible,  yea  creative;  we  may 
deem  it  the  miniature  pattern  after  which 
Creation  works  in  small  and  large,  reproduc- 
ing it  not  only  in  the  microscopic  cell  itself, 
but  in  the  hugest  of  all  animals  now  known 
or  that  have  ever  been  known  among  the  mon- 
sters of  the  geologic  ages,  the  whale  measur- 
ing eighty  feet  and  more  in  length.  Its  bil- 
lions of  cells  are  doing,  each  in  its  own  life- 
process,  quite  what  it  as  total  animal  is  doing. 
Accordingly  in  the  cell  we  observe  individ- 
ual generation,  birth,  maturity,  age  and 
death.  It  goes  the  round  of  life  from  start 
to  finish;  indeed,  just  that  is  what  makes  it 
alive.  It  has  the  primordial  vital  process,  at 
least  as  far  as  our  present  knowledge  ex- 
tends, even  if  the  cell  has  been  supposed  to 
consist  of  still  more  minute  cellules  beyond 
the  reach  of  the  most  powerful  microscope — 
a  conjecture,  by  the  way,  not  at  all  improb- 
able. But  just  now  the  cell  may  well  be 
deemed  the  pivot  upon  which  the  Biocosmos 
turns.  It  is  the  germinal  point  of  every  liv- 
ing thing  in  the  universe;  it  is  the  ultimate 
vital  constituent,  out  of  which  all  other  forms 


100  THE  BIOCOSMOS— PRELIMINARY. 

of  life,  vegetable  and  animal,  are  associated. 
It  is  no  wonder,  then,  that  the  biologist  has 
come  to  occupy  himself  with  the  cell;  he  is 
probing  to  reach  the  original  source  of  him- 
self, as  this  living  individual,  and  therewith 
of  all  humanity,  yea  of  all  life.  But  if  he 
should  reach  a  new,  more  elemental  shape  be- 
yond the  cell,  would  that  be  the  end  of  his 
search?  It  may  well  be  doubted,  for  he  has 
not  yet  attained  the  infinitely  small,  he  has 
not  yet  come  to  the  end  of  an  infinite  series 
—nor  will  he.  He  has  not  yet  passed  the 
bridge  between  the  Inorganic  and  the  Or- 
ganic— the  real  object  qf  his  hot  pursuit,  even 
if  unconscious.  Meanwhile  the  scientist  will 
precipitate  for  us  a  great  deal  of  most  valu- 
able knowledge,  his  very  science,  indeed, 
through  his  endeavor  to  scrutinize  the  In- 
scrutable— which,  of  course,  he  never  will.  It 
is  no  abuse  of  him — we  intend  it  as  a  due  rec- 
ognition of  his  worth — that  he  does  not,  in  the 
long  run,  know  what  he  is  about.  Well,  who 
does !  Nature  as  not  self-conscious,  in  fact, 
ends  where  self-consciousness  begins.  The 
scientist  becomes  one  with  what  he  works  in, 
and  shares  in  its  deepest  character ;  he  is  un- 
aware of  his  ultimate  end,  and,  so  is  Nature, 
though  both  are  working  for  it  with  all  their 
might.  The  scientist  is  unconsciously  teleo- 
logic,  as  well  as  Nature,  though  he  often  re- 


CELL-LIFE. 


pels  the  teleologic  view  with  heat,  even  with 
bitterness.  But  we  hold  it  to  be  his  chief  ex- 
cellence that  he  does  not  altogether  know 
what  he  is  about;  if  he  did  he  would  not  be 
the  true  scientist  ;  he  could  not  be  the  desper- 
ate investigator,  if  he  saw  that  what  he  was 
really  investigating  was  the  Uninvestigable 
(called  by  Goethe  Das  Unerforschliche).  Dar- 
win revealed  Evolution  with  unparalleled  in- 
dustry and  power;  but  he  was  unwittingly 
evolving  Darwin  as  the  grand  end  of  evolu- 
tion. He  saw,  indeed,  Evolution,  but  he-was 
unconscious  of  what  he  had  really  evolved, 
namely,  the  evolver  of  evolution  as  the  crown 
and  summit  of  the  whole  evolutionary  pro- 
cess. Quite  unknown  to  himself  he  had 
evolved  an  evolution  which  could  go  back  to 
the  start  as  well  as  forward  to  the  finish.  But 
consciously  he  clung  to  his  limit  and  so  he 
could,  as  pure  scientist,  watch  and  formulate 
Evolution  proper. 

Another  aspect  of  cell-life  may  be  men- 
tioned in  this  connection.  As  the  cell  per- 
forms the  primal  generative  act  of  life,  here- 
dity must  be  transmitted  through  it  from  par- 
ent to  child.  All  the  inheritances  of  the  race, 
it  would  seem,  have  to  make  this  cellular  pass- 
age. All  the  species  of  the  earth,  plant  and 
animal,  have  their  unitary  germ  in  this  wee 
protoplasmic  dot,  out  of  which  unfolds  the 


102  THE  BIOCOSMOS— PRELIMINARY. 

entire  differentiation  of  life  on  the  planet. 
The  past,  with  its  accumulated  stores,  vital 
and  mental,  has  to  be  put  through  this  genetic 
point  in  order  to  be  perpetuated  and  recreat- 
ed. Thought,  civilisation,  morals  and  institu- 
tions, whose  bearer  is  man,  have  somehow  to 
make  the  trip  with  him  through  the  cell  to 
reach  their  destination  in  the  future.  The  re- 
sult is  that  what  may  Be  called  cellular  here- 
dity has  the  dominant  stress  in  the  biology  of 
today.  Its  practical  application  is  of  far- 
reaching  consequence,  especially  in  the  social 
order;  with  it  is  connected  Galton's  new  sci- 
ence of  Eugenics,  suggesting  race-culture,  as 
well  as  race-suicide. 

Indeed,  organic  evolution  has  been  largely 
turned  into  cellular  evolution.  Darwin  had 
little  to  do  with  the  cell ;  it  was  evidently  alien 
to  him,  though  the  chief  facts  of  its  structure 
were  known  in  his  time.  For  instance,  Vir- 
chow's  great  book  on  Cellular  Pathology, 
epoch-making  in  this  field,  appeared  contem- 
poraneously with  Darwin's  Origin  of  Species. 
It  was,  however,  the  German  biologist  Weiss- 
mann  who  had  the  chief  hand  in  giving  this 
bent  to  his  science,  through  his  doctrine  of 
germinal  continuity,  which  regards  heredity 
proper  to  be  transmitted  by  the  germ-cells 
and  not  by  the  body-cells.  The  chief  contribu- 
tion of  Virchow  is  contained  in  his  famous 


CELL-LIFE.  1Q3 

aphorism  that  eve-ry  cell  springs  from  a  cell, 
from  its  like,  and  not  from  something  inor- 
ganic or  non-cellular.  Of  course  this  corre- 
sponds to  another  famous  aphorism  usually 
attributed  to  Haller:  All  life  comes  of  life, 
or,  in  the  Latin,  omne  vivum  ex  vivo.  Similar 
is  the  expression  and  also  the  thought  when 
applied  to  the  egg  (ex  ovo).  Now  Virchow 
has  likewise  Latinized  his  conception  aphor- 
istically  in  the  phrase,  Omnis  cellula  e  cellula , 
which  has  had  a  marvelous  currency,  stream- 
ing through  all  biological  literature  since  it 
was  uttered.  Great,  truly,  is  the  might  of  the 
aphorism  when  rightly  forged;  this  equals, 
perchance',  in  influence  all  the  rest  of.  Vir- 
chow's  volumes,  and  he  has  not  a  few.  Still 
the  same  difficulty  rises  here  which  we  found 
in  Biogenesis;  it  brings  us  up  to  that  same 
old  chasm  between  the  Inorganic  and  the  Or- 
ganic, and  bids  us  look  into  it,  perchance  a 
little  more  deeply  and  despairingly,  and  then 
leaves  us.  For  outside  the  cell,  which  is  usu- 
ally-declared to  be  the  first  living  thing  by  the 
biologists,  must  be  a  stage  preparatory  to  life, 
which  cannot  be  the  protoplasm,  since  this 
lies  still  inside  the  cell,  and  is  a  necessary  con- 
stituent of  it.  So  Virchow 's  aphorism  Omnis 
cellula  e  cellula,  projects  a  pre-cellular  mate- 
rial of  life  (Protobioticon),  which  is,  indeed, 


104  THE  BIOCOSMOS— PRELIMINARY. 

hypothetical,  but'  just  for  that  reason,  the 
grand  object  of  scientific  research. 

In  a  general  way  we  may,  therefore,  affirm 
that  the  present  trend  of  biology,  dealing,  as 
it  does,  so  exclusively  with  the  cell,  is  micro- 
organic,  while  previously  it  had  been  largely 
macro-organic,  since  it  concerned  itself  about 
the  larger  forms  and  organs  of  plants  and 
animals,  which,  however,  are  composites  of 
minuter  units.  These  vital  composites  have 
accordingly,  been  dissolved,  somewhat  like 
chemical  compounds,  into  their  original  inde- 
composable elements,  wherein  lies  an  analogy 
of  the  cell  to  the  atom,  though  the  latter  is 
still  beyond  the  microscope.  But  the  hitherto 
irreducible  atom  is  just  now  being  reduced  to 
its  new  constituents,  in  the  opinion  of  scien- 
tists ;  it  is  passing  through  a  process  of  disin- 
tegration, and  the  cell  will  doubtless  move  in 
the  same  direction,  in  accord  with  the  ten- 
dency of  the  present  scientific  mind.  Indeed, 
certain  biologists  have  already  struck  such  a 
note. 

So  a  certain  analogy  can  be  traced  between 
the  atom  as  the  ultimate  unit  of  chemism  (if 
it  be  ultimate),  and  the  cell  as  the  ultimate 
unit  of  vitalism  (if  it  be  ultimate).  More- 
over their  destiny  seems  to  have  a  similar  out- 
look in  the  scientific  trend  of  the  time — both 
apparently  marching  toward  some  form  of 


CELL-LIFE.  105 

disintegration.  Still  they  are  very  different, 
utterly  dissociated  from  each  other;  between 
them  yawns  again  that  chasm  dividing  the  In- 
organic and  the  Organic ;  the  atomic  limit  is 
drawn  impassable,  as  yet,  on  one  side  of  tliis 
deepest  rift  of  Nature,  the  vital  limit  stands 
immovable  on  the  other.  Science  has  long  at- 
tempted to  fly  across,  through  the  air,  on  the 
wings  of  some  cunningly  constructed  hypoth- 
esis, but  her  aeroplane  usually  capsizes  dur- 
ing the  flight  and  drops  into  the  abyss,  like 
that  ancient  craft  of  ambitious  Icarus  soar- 
ing sunward.  Still  just  that  achievement  re- 
mains the  ideal  end  of  the  science. 

Finally  there  remains  to  be  emphasized 
that  marvelous  power  of  the  cell  which  is 
sometimes  called  its  architectural  impulse, 
but  which  we  prefer  to  think  of  under  the 
name  of  association.  The  cell  combines  with 
its  fellow-cells  and  produces  the  different  or- 
gans of  the  body,  changing  itself  in  accord 
with  its  new  organic  function.  Thus  all  the 
diversities  of  our  organism  unfold  out  of  the 
cell,  which  seems  to  possess  this  inner  power 
of  organizing  itself  into  associated  wholes  of 
many  sorts.  Again  and  again  one  is  remind- 
ed of  the  higher  institutional  association  of 
man.  But  of  this  more  will  be  said  later. 
Here  we  may  add  that  such  associative  power 
in  the  cell  can  only  be  ascribed  to  the  unseen 


106  THE  B10COSMOS— PRELIMINARY. 

might  of  the  Psyche,  which  is  implanted  in 
the  living  Physis,  developing  and  directing 
the  same  toward  its  purpose  along  the  line 
of  evolutionary  shapes.  Accordingly  we  run 
again  upon  that  subtle  psychical  strain  which 
permeates  all  Nature,  especially  all  living 
Nature,  and  interconnects  the  same  amid  all 
its  separate  multiplicity  of  forms — a  thread 
pf  light  (seen  only  by  the  unifying  mind,  how- 
ever) stringing  the  microscopic  cell  together 
with  the  highest  organism.  Of  this  psychical 
activity  we  may  extend  our  glance  a  little. 

VII.  In  the  account  of  the  process  of  the 
cell  previously  given,  three  stages  were  out- 
lined in  a  certain  order.  Now  this  division 
with  its  order  is  not  an  accidental  thing,  is 
not  somewhat  simply  picked  up  by  the  way. 
On  the  contrary,  it  has  its  deep  correspon- 
dence with  the  Self  which  grasps  it  and  with 
the  Universe,  of  which  it  is  an  integral  part, 
even  if  small,  and  which  is  at  last  its  creative 
source.  To  repeat  the  process  of  the  cell  in 
brief:  first  comes  the  nucleus  (not  the  outer 
protoplasmic  mass,  which  biological  books 
usually  start  with),  then  the  separation  of 
this  nucleus  within  itself  into  new  centers, 
which  in  the  third  place  divide  also  the  proto- 
plasmic mass  and  thus  become  embodied  in  it 
as  new-born  cells.  Given  the  cell  as  imme- 
diate, it  is  forever  separating  itself,  and  re- 


THE  PSYCHICAL  ELEMENT.  1Q7 

turning  to  itself  as  a  fresh  individual.  In 
this  process  of  ever-recurrent  individuation, 
or  of  self-reproduction,  it  exists  wholly.  The 
cell  must  be  creative,  yea  self-creative,  im- 
aging therein  the  Creator,  undoubtedly  at  a 
considerable  distance.  So,  if  we  ask  whence 
comes  this  self-creative  power  of  the  cell,  we 
have  to  trace  it  back  primarily  to  the  self- 
creative  All,  of  which  the  cell  is  both  a  mani- 
festation and  a  constituent  part,  even  in  its 
far-off  minuteness.  Indeed,  to  be  a  member  of 
the  Whole,  it  must  in  some  way  reflect  that 
Whole  of  which  it  is  a  member. 

Accordingly  one  has  to  affirm  that  this  pro- 
cess of  the  cell  is  not  only  physical  but  psy- 
chical; its  movement  is  in  and  with  matter, 
but  its  ordering  principle  is  the  Self.  Not 
simply  my  or  your  Self,  but  the  Self,  the  All- 
Self,  if  one  may  so  say.  To  be  sure  I  and  you 
must  identify  the  process  of  the  cell  with  our 
own  ultimate  process,  that  of  our  Ego;  all 
true  knowledge  is,  indeed,  to  investigate  the 
process  of  the  thing  with  the  process  of 
thought.  I  can  never  understand  the  cell  till 
I  make  it  truly  mine — appropriate  it  inter- 
nally; which  appropriation  takes  place  when 
I  fetch  up,  assimilate,  and  unite  the  essence 
of  the  cell  with  my  own  essence,  proclaiming 
both  of  us  as  one  in  all  our  difference.  Thus 
there  is  a  bond  conjoining  us  in  our  cognition, 


108  THE  BIOC08M08— PRELIMINARY. 

yea  creating  us  both,  namely,  the  cell  and  me, 
who  are  coupled  finally  in  the  act  of  the  Cre- 
ator, or  the  Universal  Ego  (Pampsychosis). 
Or  we  may  say  that  the  process  of  the  cell 
is  an  impress  upon  it  from  the  outside,  verily, 
from  above,  and  I  bear  the  same  impress,  to 
be  sure,  in  a  different  and  doubtless  higher 
form ;  that  is,  I  bear  it  as  conscious  of  itself. 
Still  further  that  cell-process  is  not  merely  an 
image  of  the  All-process,  but  is  created  by  it, 
yea,  is  created  by  it  creative.  So  the  Creator 
imparts  his  own  creativity  to  his  Creation,  of 
which  the  cell  with  its  process  is  not  only  an 
instance,  but  an  integral  part.  When  it  is 
asked  whence  comes  that  power  of  self-divi- 
sion in  the  nucleus  of  the  cell  the  answer  may 
be  given  that  such  is  the  fact  and  that  science 
inquires  no  further,  content  with  observing 
and  describing  correctly  the  phenomena.  Or 
it  may  be  said  that  such  a  question  lies  not 
only  beyond  the  province  of  science,  but  be- 
yond the  limits  of  our  intelligence,  being  in 
the  realm  of  the  Unknowable.  Still,  man  can- 
not be  quieted  by  such  a  makeshift,  the  search 
for  the  creative  source  of  the  cell  and  of  all 
things,  man  included,  continues  unremitting- 
ly. Millionfold  are  the  details  yet  to  be  dis- 
covered; but  we  can  now  say,  as  was  long 
since  said,  though  in  a  very  general  way,  that 
the  creativity  of  the  part  springs  from  the 


THE  PSYCHICAL  ELEMENT.  1Q9 

Whole,  that  the  perpetual  self-reproduction 
or  self-regeneration  of  the  individual  is  trans- 
mitted from  the  ever-creating  activity  of  the 
Universe  itself.  Germinal  continuity  has  be- 
come the  leading  concept  of  today's  biology, 
chiefly  through  the  work  of  Weissmann ;  that 
indeed  unconsciously  calls  for,  even  it  does 
not  yet  glimpse,  the  universal  origin,  the  pri- 
mordial source  of  this  germinal  continuity 
which  courses  as  yet  only  through  the  genetic 
cells  of  individuals.  The  universally  creative 
reservoir — in  fact,  just  the  Universe — is  wait- 
ing to  be  tapped  at  its  fountain-head  by  sci- 
ence, which  for  the  most  part  cries  out  that' 
the  thing  can  never  be  done,  in  that  famous 
shout  of  Du  Bois  Keymond:  ignoramus  et  ig- 
norabimus. 

Coming  back  to  our  cell-process  again,  we 
may  now  give  to  it  a  name  which  designates 
not  only  its  formal  order,  but  its  origin  as 
well  as  its  genetic  character.  It  is  a  Psycho- 
sis, a  psychical  process  as  well  as  a  physical. 
The  first  is  more  the  formative  principle,  the 
second  more  the  material ;  each  inheres  in  the 
other  inseparably  throughout  cell-life  and  the 
entire  Biocosmos.  The  psychical  side  is  the 
mysterious  supersensible  one  to  the  biologist, 
which  he  cannot  reach  with  his  microscope  or 
other  detectives,  chemical  and  mechanical; 
still  it  is  present  and  working,  yea,  in  control. 


THE  BIOCOSMOS—  PRELIMINARY. 


He  often  notes  its  activity  as  the  architectonic 
principle  of  the  cell,  the  hidden  builder  or 
demiurge  thereof;  but  its  origin  as  well  as 
its  character  lie  in  the  dark  chaos  outside  of 
his  world,  branded  often  as  useless,  if  not  for- 
bidden themes  of  thought.  Still  even  he  can- 
not help  pursuing  them,  if  only  to  damn  them. 
It  may  well  be  here  added  that  the  fighting 
biologist  has  somewhat  receded  into  the  back- 
ground since  the  days  of  Huxley,  who  took 
such  delight  in  exhibiting  his  expert  swords- 
manship of  speech  against  his  antagonists,  es- 
pecially the  Anglican  clergy.  Even  Tyndall, 
naturally  a  gentle,  lovable  soul  welters  in  a 
good  deal  of  controversy  with  his  peculiar 
devil,  whom  he  often  genially  larrups  but  can- 
not quite  put  down.  Meanwhile  he  gives  us 
much  important  knowledge  in  a  very  agree- 
able way.  Some  of  his  scientific  writings  rise 
into  the  realm  of  Literature  through  their 
beautiful,  or  at  least,  very  neat-fitting  form. 
Huxley,  on  the  other  hand,  is  grandly  pugna- 
cious, when  the  full  power  is  on,  which  the 
sight  of  a  bishop  seemingly  can  excite  in  him  ; 
that  famous,  speech  of  his  on  The  Physical 
Basis  of  Life  —  for  it  is  an  oration  in  spirit 
and  expression  —  smites  at  times  with  the  ring 
of  Thor's  hammer,  through  which  we  can 
often  hear  the  undertone  of  self-contradic- 
tion ;  it  has  in  passages  a  furious  Demosthe- 


THE  PSYCHICAL  ELEMENT. 


nic  utterance  which,  however,  on  close  inspec- 
tion is  worm-holed  through  and  through  by 
a  defective  logic.  Still  today,  though  more 
than  forty  years  old,  as  a  sample  of  the  Lit- 
erature of  Science  it  remains  of  the  greatest. 
In  this  connection  the  remark  is  due  that  the 
band  of  scientists  contemporary  with  Darwin 
show  a  sense  of  style  unusual  with  their  pro- 
fession; the  result  is  that  they  have  added  to 
Literature  proper  a  new  department,  repre- 
sented before  their  time  only  by  a  few  sparse 
and  humble  works  (like  White's  History  of 
Selborne).  Not  a  little  of  the  power  of-  Dar- 
win himself  springs  from  his  feeling  for  the 
right  word  in  the  right  place;  he  has  for  his 
work  the  appropriate  literary  gift  which  is 
always  felt  by  the  reader.  The  beauty-winged 
words  of  these  writers  has  borne  science  to 
the  hearts  of  the  people  where  it  must  finally 
have  lodgment,  if  it  is  to  be  effective  and  ful- 
fil its  highest  purpose.  Scientific  thought  and 
speech  in  their  less  technical  forms  have  be- 
come implanted  in  the  consciousness  of  the 
folk  and  have  intrenched  themselves  as  a  spe- 
cial branch  in  the  belles-lettres  of  the  age. 
This  must  be  deemed  a  very  significant  fact, 
and  gives  us  a  glimpse  of  a  fresh  trend  of  the 
time-spirit.  The  scientific  thought-world  is 
thus  a  necessary  element  or  strand  of  the 
whole  man,  but  it  must  not  claim  total  and 


THE  BIOCOSMOS—  PRELIMINARY. 


exclusive  possession  of  his  spiritual  estate 
(which  it  has  been  sometimes  inclined  to  do.) 

Coming  back  to  the  process  of  the  cell,  we 
observe  that  it  has  already  within  itself  the 
process  of  .the  Ego,  which  it  is  to  unfold 
through  a  long  line  of  evolutionary  shapes. 
of  Nature  till  just  that  process  of  the  Ego 
becomes  explicit,  self-active,  having  itself  as 
its  own  content  —  consciousness.  Thus  it 
emerges  from  the  Physis,  creates  and  re-cre- 
ates its  own  form  at  will,  is  indeed  itself  sim- 
ple will.  The  purposive  end  of  all  Life  ac- 
cordingly —  Plant-life,  Animal-life,  Earth- 
life  —  is  the  evolution  of  the  pure  Psyche  or 
Ego.  Herein  we  may  note  that  the  generative 
process  is  wholly  in  the  individual,  is  in  fact 
his  mind,  producing  its  other  in  itself  and  as 
a  part  of  its  total  activity  —  self-separating 
and  self-returning.  So  it  is  our  Self  which 
can  now  separate  from  the  organism,  turn 
back  and  look  at  the  same.  But  when  such  a 
Self  has  evolved  not  only  to  the  point  that  it 
can  behold  its,  own  individuated  form,  -but  the 
whole  ladder  of  forms  evolving  up  to  its  own 
from  the  cell,  then  we  have  reached  the  stage 
of  a  Darwin^  not  merely  as  tTris  individual 
consciousness,  but  as  the  consciousness  of  his 
century. 

Moreover  such  an  act  we  are  to  conceive 
as  the  supreme  overreaching  act  of  the  Bicos- 


DIVISIONS  OF  THE  BIOCOSMOS. 


mos,  its  very  consciousness,  at  least  in  its 
present  attainment.  Doubtless  it  will  evolve 
to  a  new  stage  in  the  future. 

VIII.  And  now  before  setting  out  on  our 
special  journey,  we  have  to  peer  over  the  com- 
ing territory  in  a  little  map  on  which  we  may 
mark  down  the  main  stages.  As  the  Biocos- 
mos  signifies  the  Order  of  Life,  so  we  may 
well  ask  for  a  glimpse  of  this  ordering  of  the 
subject  at  the  start.  Already  we  have  noted 
the  place  of  the  Bicosmos  in  the  total  Order 
of  Nature,  of  which  it  is  the  third  supreme 
member  or  constituent,  along  with  the  Cos- 
mos and  Diocosmos.  But  within  itself,  as  here 
set  forth,  it  shows  three  leading  divisions, 
which  form  its  process  as  a  whole  and  which 
must  be  conceived  ultimately  as  psychical. 
These  may  be  in  general  designated  briefly  as 
follows  : 

(I.)  THE  CELLULAK  BIOCOSMOS  :  which,  in 
the  present  state  of  biological  science  we  have 
put  first,  as  the  cell  is  deemed  the  primal  uni- 
tary basis  of  Life.  The  immediate  or  ele- 
mental stage  of  the  total  Biocosmos  is,  accord- 
ingly, the  cellular;  in  the  language  of  recent 
biology,  the  cell  is  the  ultimate  unit  of  organic 
Life.  Still  the  cell  has  its  own  inner  process 
of  separation  and  restoration,  as  we  have  al- 
ready seen,  even  if  the  biologist  is  seeking 
among  its  various  divisions  for  something 


;Q4  THE  BIOCOSMOS— PRELIMINARY. 

more  ultimate.  And  there  is  somethng  more 
ultimate,  controlling  it  in  various  ways,  but 
hardy  visible  by  the  microscope.  Just  this 
cell-division  and  on  the  other  hand  cell-organ- 
isation reveal  the  work  of  a  determining  en- 
ergy only  palpable  in  its  results.  The  highest 
act  of  the  Cellular  Bicosmos  is  the  organic  as- 
sociation of  cells,  which  leads  to  the  next 
stage. 

(II.)  THE  PARTICULARIZED  BIOCOSMOS: 
that  is,  the  universal  cell-life  of  the  Biocos- 
mos  is  now  to  be  seen  particularizing  itself 
into  its  three  leading  forms,  Plant-life,  Ani- 
mal-life and  Earth-life.  Each  of  these  falls 
into  its  own  special  line  of  evolution,  which 
is  still  further  divided  into  many  successive 
shapes  or  individuals,  from  low  to  high  in 
grade,  and  from  first  to  last  in  time.  Thus 
the  present  is  the  vast  realm  of  separated 
Life,  of  the  Biocosmos  particularized  down 
to  the  living  individual,  which  may  be  even  a 
cell,  our  previous  starting-point.  But  the 
emphasis  is  heje  upon  the  association  of 
cells  which  become  organized  into  many 
forms,  of  which  the  three  leading  ones  we 
have  noted.  Especially  the  Earth-life  has  a 
long  history  which  leads  up  to  the  self-return- 
ing Ego — wherewith  a  new  stage  of  the  Bio- 
cosmos  begins'to  be  manifested. 

(III.)     THE  HISTORICAL  BIOCOSMOS:  this  is 


DIVISIONS  OF  THE  BIOCOSMOS. 


the  product  of  a  retrospective  power  which 
has  arisen  through  Nature  and  is  looking 
back  at  her,  unfolding  her  stages  which  are 
also  its  own.  Thus  the  self-returning  Self  (or 
Ego),  in  accord  with  its  deepest  character, 
returns  upon  itself,  and  sets  forth  its  life- 
history.  Without  this  rounding-out  in  its 
process  the  Biocosmos  would  not  be  complete. 
The  Psyche,  hitherto  implicit,  has  now  become 
explicit,  and  is  to  unfold  its  own  evolution 
through  all  Life  up  to  this  final  retrogressive 
act,  which  may  for  the  present  be  deemed  its 
culmination.  The  movement  is  indeed  psy- 
chical, though  its  content  is  still  Nature  (or 
the  Physis),  but  not  merely  in  her  individual 
shapes;  these  are  now  united  in  one  univejrsal 
sweep  from  the  lowest  organism  to  the  high- 
est, forming  an  interconnected  whole  which 
ends  in  man  with  the  aforesaid  psychical 
power.  Such  is  essentially  the  Darwin  deed  : 
the  Psyche  grappling  the  Physis  in  the  lat- 
ter 's  entirety,  which  is  simply  its  own  evolu- 
tion up  to  this  self-returning  historic  act  of 
itself. 

Such  are  some  preliminary  hints  of  the 
scope  of  the  Biocosmos,  which  indeed  seems 
small  compared  to  the  extent  of  the  Cosmos 
and  Diacosmos.  Still  the  goal  and  consum- 
mation of  the  latter  must  be  deemed  this  one 
little  vital  dot  in  the  universe,  though  there 


THE  BIOCOSMOS—  PRELIMINARY. 


may  be  others  which  we  know  not  of.  Even 
the  mass  of  the  Earth-ball  is  far  greater  than 
the  thin  green  film  of  Life  which  enwraps  it 
on  the  outside.  Relatively  all  living  exist- 
ence is  but  a  tiny  moth  flitting  its  brief  mo- 
ment in  the  light  and  warmth  of  the  Sun. 
Still  just  this  tiny  moth  is  the  purposive  end 
toward  which  all  Nature  moves  through  its 
colossal  magnitudes  and  mighty  revolutions, 
and  which  is  its  fulfilment  and  completion. 
For  the  Biocosmos  is  the  conclusion  of  Na- 
ture, thus  rounding-out  the  cosmical  and  dia- 
cosmical  stages,  and  evolving  up  to  man,  who 
looks  back  and  reproduces  in  thought  and 
word  his  own  evolution.  This  is  what  we  are 
now  to  follow  out  in  our  exposition. 


THE  CELLULAR  BIOCOSMOS. 

So  we  shall  designate  the  first  and  most 
immediate  part  or  stage  of  the  total  Bio- 
cosmos.  The  cell  is  the  primordial  form  of 
Life,  its  first  appearance  to  the  senses;  it  is, 
therefore,  the  beginning.  Already  we  have 
given  a  brief  statement  of  its  process;  here 
the  fact  must  be  noted  that  the  cell  has  risen 
to  be  the  leading  principle  in  the  science  of 
Life.  Biology  at  present  chiefly  concerns  it- 
self with  the  cell,  which  has  become  not  sim- 
ply an  object  of  theoretical  investigation,  but 
has  deeply  entered,  if  not  quite  usurped  the 
practical  field  of  the  sciences  of  disease  and 
health.  Medicine^has  been  transformed  in  re- 
cent years  by  the  knowledge  and  treatment 

(117) 


THE    BIOCOSMOS—  CELLULAR. 


of  the  cell.  The  physician  in  these  days  has 
to  be  something  of  a  cellular  biologist,  even 
if  he  does  not  specialize  on  given  lines  (like 
the  bacteriologist).  The  complete  view  of 
the  Science  of  Life  must  include  the  Sci- 
ence of  Disease  (Pathology,  Nosology),  and 
the  Science  of  Health  (Hygiology  or  Hy- 
gienics), as  well  as  the  .Science  of  the  Cell 
(now  sometimes  called  Cytology,  but  far 
oftener  Biology  which  in  this  narrow  sense  is 
properly  a  misnomer).  All  these  special  de- 
partments we  put  under  the  head  of  The  Cel- 
lular Biocosmos,  which  is  itself  but  one  stage, 
the  first,  of  our  entire  theme. 

The  cell,  accordingly,  being  the  ultimate 
unit  or  the  first  form  of  organic  Life,  consti- 
tutes the  primal  division  of  biological  sci- 
ence as  a  whole.  It  is  the  element  out  of 
which  all  living  shapes  are  constructed,  or 
better,  are  associated.  So  it  comes  that  this 
constitutive  element  of  Life  is  just  now  the 
object  of  the  concentrated  pursuit  of  Life's 
science.  In  one  sense  the  biologist  has  over- 
taken and  caught  the  cell;  in  another  sense, 
he  is  still  in  the  hottest  search  for  it,  seem- 
ingly unable  to  catch  it.  What  is  the  matter  ! 

Very  significant  is  the  fact  that  the  Bio- 
cosmos  is  moving  scientifically  in  the  same  di- 
rection as  the  Diacosmos,  whose  trend  was 
set  forth  in  a  former  volume  (Cosmos  and 


THE    MOVEMENT    OF    THE    CELL. 


Diacosmos).  The  movement  in  both  is  to- 
ward the  small  and  smallest  as  constituents 
of  the  physical  universe.  Already  we  have 
noted  the  analogy  between  the  Diacosmical 
molecule  (or  even  the  -atom)  and  the  Biocos- 
mical  cell  ;  each  is  in  an  ever  diminishing  line 
of  descent  toward  the  infinitely  minute  or  di- 
vided. Both  therein  mirror  the  character  of 
the  science  of  the  time,  which  is  so  deeply  sep- 
arative and  specialized,  but  not  well  synthe- 
sized and  ordered;  indeed  the  same  divisive 
tendency  is  largely  the  character  of  the  age 
in  all  thought  and  activity.  Ours  is  not  a 
great  integrating  epoch,  such  as  we  have  seen 
in  other  periods  of  the  World's  History. 
This  is  no  lamentation  over  the  time,  for 
Psychology  in  its  universal  sense  recognizes 
the  separative  stage  to  be  as  necessary  as 
any  other,  to  be  indeed  an  inherent  part  of 
the  total  process,  be  this  little  or  large.  In 
the  Diacosmos  we  saw  the  material  divided 
into  speculative  molecules,  which  in  due  time 
were  separated  into  atoms,  which  semed  for 
a  while  to  be  the  final  resting-place.  But 
now  the  atom  has  been  disintegrated  (so  sci- 
ence is  saying),  and  is  found  to  be  made  up 
of  whirling  electrons,  which  may  be  compared 
to  particles  of  dust  flying  in  a  room  when  it 
is  swept,  the  atom  being  the  room.  Each 
atom  of  a  chemical  element  (this  element  was 


12Q  THE    BIOCOSMOS— CELLULAR. 

also  the  result  of  .an  epochal  separation  of  a 
material  object,  for  instance,  water),  has  now 
many  electrons,  which  indeed  vary  in  every 
elemental  atom  and  are  supposed  to  consti- 
tute its  distinct  character.  So  we  whiz  from 
the  small  to  the  smaller,  but  have  probably 
not  yet  gotten  to  the  smallest.  For  the  elec- 
tron, the  last  and  as  yet  least  Diacosmical 
product,  is  already  showing  signs  of  disinte 
gration  in  its  turn;  yea,  it  bore  such  a  sign 
as  its  birth-mark  in  the  two  antagonistic 
electricities  (positive  and  negative),  of  which 
it  is  said  to  be  composed.  Manifestly  the 
divisive  process  cannot  stop  on  this  side  of 
the  ultimate  universal  element  of  all  ele- 
ments, now  conceived  as  ether.  And  this 
ether  cannot  fail  to  have  its  corresponding 
small  constituent  unit,  the  etherion;  and  as 
atomicity  has  been  succeeded  by  electricity 
(or  electronicity),  so  electricity  likewise  must 
pass  down  the  line  and  be  followed  perchance 
by  ethericity.  (See  Cosmos  and  Diacosmos, 
pp.  426,  554-60,  etc.)  This  is  of  course  merely 
glancing  ahead,  possibly  far  ahead,  and  so 
it  runs  the  danger  of  all  prophecy.  But  we 
must  recollect  that  the  molecule,  the  atom, 
the  ion,  and  the  electron  are  as  yet  purely 
hypothetical,  and,  from  the  strict  scientific 
standpoint  of  sense-perception,  they  are 
wholly  unproved  and  possibly  unprovable. 


THE    MOVEMENT    OF    THE    CELL. 


Still  they  are  the  kernel  of  the  Diacosmical 
science  of  today,  which,  as  often  observed, 
is  getting  more  speculative  than  philosoph- 
ical speculation  in  its  greatest  bloom.  A 
necessity  of  Nature  's  Science  is  this,  we  say: 
within  its  field  it  is  running  at  full  tilt  towards 
its  unseen  psychical  origin  and  control  —  its 
destiny. 

Now  this  same  tendency  of  reaching  out 
for  the  infinitely  small  in  order  to  get  at  the 
source  and  soul  of  things,  is  next  to  be  ob- 
served in  the  Biocosmos.  We  have  already 
noted  the  aphorism  of  the  early  biologist  -that 
all  Life  comes  of  Life  (Omne  vivum  ex  vivo), 
which  we  may  take  as  a  starting-point.  The 
next  step  is  the  cell  when  it  gets  fairly  in- 
trenched through  the  microscope  in  the  biolo- 
gical consciousness,  whose  expression  is 
found  in  the  aphorism  of  Virchow  that  every 
cell  arises  out  of  a  preceding  cell  (Omnis 
cellula  e  cellula}.  But  his  is  not  the  end  of 
the  ever-diminishing  series.  The  cell  under 
the  microscope  becomes  a  large  organic  ob- 
ject, too  large,  in  fact,  and  therefore  must  be 
biologically  divided.  The  cell  has  in  it  float- 
ing many  protoplasmic  points  or  granules; 
what  are  they  and  whence  and  whither  1  They 
have  been  supposed  to  be  new  cellular  units, 
the  seeds  of  young  cells  capable  of  growth 
and  division;  that  is,  possessed  of  the  cell- 


122  THE    BIOC08M08— CELLULAR. 

process.  On  the  other  hand  they  may  pos- 
sibly connect  with  the  Diacosmical  molecule 
or  atom  or  electron.  So  they  may  form  a 
little  span  of  that  bridge  between  the  Inor- 
ganic and  the  Organic,  the  great  object  of 
biological  pursuit.  At  any  rate,  these  gran- 
ules have  been  conceived  to  be  forms  of  the 
organized  primordial  cell  which  has  likewise 
the  power  of  self  propagation  through  divi- 
sion. The  result  is  a  new  aphorism:  every 
granule  springs  of  a  granule  (Omne  granu- 
lum  ex  granule).  This  contribution  comes 
from  a  German  biologist,  Altmann ;  but  it  is, 
we  learn,  rather  discredited  by  the  guild,  who 
feel  that  such  a  whirl  is  endlessly  coming  to 
the  same  thing.  Still  it  shows  the  inherent 
scientific  trend  of  the  time,  and  will  be  adopt- 
ed, if  not  in  this  shape,  then  in  some  other 
at  some  later  date.  Undoubtedly,  it  is  a  di- 
rect offshoot  of  Yirchow's  aphorism  which 
in  its  turn  is  a  derivative,  all  of  them  in  des- 
perate pursuit  of  the  infinitely  small  as  the 
great  original./)  f  Nature  and  indeed  of  the 
Universe.  It  is  truly  suggestive,  yea,  pivotal, 
to  observe  how  one  aphorism  germinates  in 
the  mind  from  another,  quite  like  this  pro- 
cess of  cell  from  cell.  We  witness  the  idea 
running  parallel  in  evolution  with  the  real- 
ity; thus  the  process  of  biological  science 
takes  after  that  of  its  own  cell,  which  is  in- 


THE   MOVEMENT    OF    THE    CELL. 


123 


deed  its  central  content.  Will  it  stop!  Hard- 
ly at  its  present  landing-place,  one  has  to 
think;  the  next  investigator  will  divide  again, 
for  such  division  is  in  him,  in  his  conscious- 
ness, as  well  as  outside  of  him,  in  the  object, 
yea,  in  the  spirit  of  the  age. 

It  is,  therefore,  significant,  that  many  a 
biologist  has  predicated  already  the  ultimate 
cellular  unit  beyond  the  cell  as  at  present  vis- 
ible, yea,  beyond  the  granule  as  the  hypothe- 
tical basis  or  source  of  Life.  This  tendency 
is  already  found  in  Herbert  Spencer's  phy- 
siological units  and  in  Darwin's  gemmules; 
here  too  belong  the  biophors  (Weismann), 
the  plastidules  (Hackel),  the  bioblasts 
(Beall),  the  bio  gens  (Verworn),  the  pang  ens 
(De  Vries),  the  idioblasts  (Hertwig),  and  so 
on  indefinitely.  Each  investigator  has  a  bent 
for  springing  upon  us  a  new  name,  so  that 
these  names  seem  to  be  also  moving  toward 
infinite  diversity,  like  the  cell.  The  above 
designations  are  but  a  few  samples  out  of 
the  lot,  and  they  are  already  getting  a  little 
aged.  (See  a  longer  list  in  Wilson's  The 
Cell,  p.  291,  where  the  author  remarks  that 
his  list  is  by  no  means  complete  and  that  the 
above  terms  are  shaded  with  different  mean- 
ings by  their  proposers,  though  all  have  the 
one  content  and  show  the  same  trend  of  the 
science.  It  may  be  added  that  the  cited  book 


124  THE    BIOCOSMOS— CELLULAR. 

is,  at  the  date  of  this  writing  (1911)  more 
than  ten  years  old,  which  period  has  been 
prolific  in  biological  discovery,  but  even  more 
prolific  in  biological  hypothesis — all  of  it, 
however,  going  pretty  much  the  same  way.) 
Still  in  this  field  of  the  small  and  smallest 
we  round  up  with  the  concept  that  life  springs 
only  from  life.  The  division  seems  always 
to  return  to  its  starting  point,  as  if  to  start 
over  again.  So  we  are  inclined  to  go  back 
to  Darwin's  hypothesis  of  the  gemmule, 
which  he  sets  forth  in  his  doctrine  of  pangen- 
esis,  holding  that  the  germ-cells  contain  still 
more  minute  cells  (his  gemmules)  separated 
from  every  part  of  the  body  and  thus  share 
in  or  register  the  changes  taking  place  in  the 
organism.  Thus  he  seeks  to  account  for  both 
acquired  and  congenital  variations  and  their 
transmissions  to  offspring — round  which 
themes  recent  biology  surges  so  tempestu- 
ously. Darwin  hardly  introduces  the  micro- 
scope, the  grand  modern  weapon,  but  theor- 
izes purely  in  this  case.  (See  Variation  of 
Animals  and  Plants,  c.  27).  His  view  was 
not  generally  accepted  at  the  time  of  its  pro- 
mulgation, even  by  his  followers — a  fact 
which  we  find  him  very  gently  complaining 
about  in  his  correspondence.  Still  it  has  been 
exceedingly  fruitful  of  posterity,  though 
purely  an  idea ;  indeed,  it  may  well  be  deemed 


THE    MOVEMENT    OF    THE    CELL. 


125 


the  germ  of  today's  biological  dicussion, 
which  is  seeking  so  desperately  to  account 
for  heredity,  with  the  practical  purpose  of 
somehow  controlling  it,  or  at  least  directing 
it  into  certain  improved  channels.  The  Dar- 
winian gemmule,  though  supposed  to  be  only 
physical,  has  certainly  produced  many  gem- 
mules  of  mind,  which  are  still  being  born; 
and  again  it  is  to  be  noted  how  the  psyche 
of  the  biologists  is  itself  a  kind  of  cellular 
process  in  this  sphere,  the  deeper  reason  be- 
ing that  the  cellular  process  likewise  is  at  last 
psychical.  The  gemmule,  then,  may  be  con- 
sidered the  germinal  idea  out  of  which  so 
much  recent  biology  has  evolved.  But  with 
it  the  question  again  comes  up :  is  it  the  real 
origin  of  Life?  Hardly,  though  it  is  the  ori- 
gin of  itself. 

Here,  then,  dawns  a  new  form  of  the  old 
aphorism  already  cited,  though  this  new  form 
has  not  been  expressed  as  far  as  we  are 
aware.  Following  the  analogy  of  its  previous 
Latinized  sentences,  one  may  set  it  down 
thus :  Omnis  gemmula  e  gemmula.  Such  is 
the  fourth  aphorism  or  aphoristic  model  in 
this  field,  uttering  the  last  phase  of  the  bio- 
logical evolution  of  the  cell,  inclusive  or  per- 
chance typical  of  all  the  rest.  For  it  is  now 
confessedly  the  idea,  hypothetical,  unseen, 
ultra-microscopical,  whereas  the  other  three, 


126  THE    BIOCOSMOS— CELLULAR. 

even  the  granule,  were  material,  visible  un- 
der the  microscope,  and  hence  realities.  The 
gemmule  in  its  evolution  has  become  as  spec- 
ulative as  the  atom  or  electron — a  mental  ob- 
ject asserted  to  be  physical.  The  Psyche  has 
thus  reached  the  point  of  affirming  on  its  own 
authority  that  it  has  the  Physis  as  sensuous 
counterpart,  though  inaccessible  to  the 
senses. 

Inevitably  the  question  rises  about  the  re- 
lation between  these  ultimate  units  (of  course 
only  at  present  ultimate)  of  the  organic  and 
inorganic  worlds,  for  instance,  the  gemmule 
and  the  electron.  As  yet  they  are  refractory 
and  refuse  unity;  each  maintains  decidedly 
its  own  individuality  against  the  other.  Still 
we  have  to  cast  the  horoscope  of  science 
which,  in  its  own  evolution,  has  become  so 
deeply  speculative.  The  possibility  of  a  com- 
mon meeting-point  between  the  Diacosmos 
and  the  Biocosmos  would  seem  to  lie  in  that 
as  yet  very  elusive  medium  known  as  the 
Ether,  and  in  its  unit  (called  by  us  the  Ethe- 
rion)  the  elemental  gemmule  of  Life  may  yet 
be  found  reposing.  All  this  is  only  theory 
and  forecast;  still  on  both  sides  of  the  line 
Diacosmical  as  well  as  Biocosmical,  we  note 
the  common  trend,  as  yet  separate,  but  seem- 
ingly "converging  in  a  point  toward  the  in- 
finitely small.  Such  we  may  see  in  these  two 


THE   MOVEMENT    OF    THE    CELL, 


127 


quite  identical  movements  of  the  two  grand 
divisions  of  Nature  toward  a  real  point  of 
identity  which,  if  never  quite  to  be  reached 
is  certainly  to  be  more  and  more  approached. 
The  biological  aspiration  is  apparently  to 
behold  the  initial  point  or  germ-plasm  whence 
fork  the  Organic  and  Inorganic  from  a  com- 
mon center,  to  discover  the  bifurcation  of  the 
Diacosmos  and  Biocosmos,  each  of  which  then 
evolves  independently  on  its  own  road  after 
its  own  fashion.  In  a  somewhat  similar  way 
the  plant  and  the  animal  have  been  carried 
back  to  an  organic  cell  from  which  they  ftoth 
diverge  and  evolve  along  separate  paths. 
Such  a  function  is  usually  assigned  to  the 
Protista,  which,  however,  must  still  be  car- 
ried up  to  some  remoter  source  or  sources, 
even  to  the  ultimate  unit  not  merely  of  Life 
(which  is  the  cell),  but  of  Unlife  and  Life  of 
all  Nature.  Psyche  has  already  that  unit 
ideally  in  herself,  and  is  at  present  emphatic- 
ally bent  on  finding  it  in  Physis. 

So  our  cellular  Biocosmos  may  be  deemed 
the  scene  of  the  great  scientific  struggle  of 
the  time,  displaying  the  ideal  pursuit  of  the 
scientist  as  well  as  the  strength  and  also  the 
limitation  of  his  consciousness.  For  the  Ego 
of  the  biologist  is  formed  by  his  work;  while 
evolving  the  cell,  he  is  equally  evolving  the 
evolver,  namely,  himself.  But  he  is  doing 


128  THE    BIOCOSMOS— CELLULAR. 

something-  more  and  of  deeper  import:  his 
act  is  likewise  a  social  act,  bearing  the  im- 
press of  his  age,  of  which  he  is  more  or  less  of 
an  utterance.  Darwin  must  remain  his  su- 
preme prototype,  who  formulated  the  deepest 
strain  of  his  time,  with  his  doctrine  of  Evo- 
lution. That  doubleness  of  Nature  lies  in 
both  men;  it  is  that  of  Physis  and  Psyche, 
with  their  perpetual  approachment,  yet  sep- 
aration still.  Will  there  ever  be  a  final  syn- 
thesis of  the  twain,  the  ideal  end  of  the  scien- 
tist? 

Putting  the  problem  in  another  form,  we 
may  ask,  Will  the  Psyche  ever  get  inside  the 
atom,  or  electron,  and  make  it  live  ?  To  some 
such  result  it  seems  to  be  leading  the  Biocos- 
mos  in  its  search  for  the  ultimate  unit  of  Life 
beyond  the  cell ;  or  we  may  call  it  the  new  cell. 
To  be  sure  this  pursuit  cannot  stop  with  such 
an  attainment,  for  the  electron  is  clearly  not 
an  ultimate,  it  is  already  going  to  pieces  in 
spite  of  the  herculean  attempts  to  hold  it  to- 
gether. The  far  subtler  ether  with  its  ethe- 
rion  is  at  work  underneath  every  cosmical 
and  diacosmical  form  (such  as  electricity  for 
instance),  and  is  calling  for  the  new  synthe- 
sis. So  we  run  upon  the  question,  the  last 
for  the  present;  Is  the  Psyche  finally  to  be 
found  inside  the  etherion,  and  thus  become 
the  original  elemental  cell  of  the  Biocosmos  ? 


THE   MOVEMENT    OF    THE    CELL.  129 

Here  we  may  well  cry  halt  to  the  remotely 
forecasting  imagination  (which  Tyndall, 
however,  makes  an  important  part  of  the  sci- 
entists '  intellectual  outfit),  and  come  down  to 
the  present  state  of  our  science.  As  already 
indicated  the  Cellular  Biocosmos  falls  natur- 
ally into  the  following  three  divisions,  which 
form  a  process  together : 

(I)  Cytology — the  science  of  the  cell  in 
its  immediate  manifestation. 

(II)  Pathology — in  general  known  as  the 
science  of  disease;  the  negative  phase  of  the 
cell. 

(III)  Hygiology — the   science   of  health, 
the  restoration  of  the  cell  from  its  negative 
condition. 

The  present  is  a  vast  field,  embracing  as  it 
does  the  whole  subject  of  medicine  and  heal- 
ing, with  its  numerous  theories  and  practices 
— all  more  or  less  in  a  state  of  bitter  strife. 
Of  course  there  can  be  no  attempt  here  to 
give  even  a  slight  survey  of  the  merits  or 
demerits  of  this  conflict  of  the  doctors  of 
physic,  in  which  also  the  doctors  of  divinity 
and  even  divinity  without  the  doctor  have 
mingled.  This  field  more  than  any  other  per- 
haps, may  be  deemed  the  present  battle- 
ground of  the  Biocosmos  on  account  of  the 
many  combatants,  the  great  diversity  of  their 
positions,  and  the  frequent  fierceness  of  their 


130  THE    BIOCOSMOS— CELLULAR. 

mutual  onslaughts.  Still  we  hope  to  run  a 
slender  line  of  order  through  this  seething 
mass  which  seems  on  the  outside  so  chaotic. 

I.     CYTOLOGY. 

The  first  portion  of  the  Cellular  Biocos- 
mos  deals  with  the  cell  proper,  its  origin, 
structure  and  functions  apart  from  its  dis- 
eases— its  positive  side  we  may  call  this,  as 
distinct  from  its  negative  side.  This  direct 
positive  field  of  cell-science  is  very  generally 
known  as  Biology  in  the  narrow  sense,  though 
the  special  term  for  it,  Cytology,  seems  to  be 
creeping  into  use.  At  any  rate  the  word  is 
needed,  though  it  unfortunately  has  the 
wrong  implication  of  a  cell  being  always  a 
hollow  thing — against  which  conception  the 
biologist  of  the  present  day  seldom  fails  to 
speak  his  protest.  But  the  Greek  word 
Jcutos  is  a  literal  translation  of  the  Latin 
cella,  and  perpetuates  the  old  mistake.  Cytol- 
ogy is,  then,  the  science  of  the  cell  taken  in 
itself  or  as  immediate,  and  hence  it  comes 
first  in  the  Biocosmos  as  the  basic  principle 
of  all  Life,  as  the  very  beginning  thereof. 

It  is  true  that  this  beginning  of  Life  has 
not  yet  been  found  as  a  sensuous  object,  and 
so  is  vigorously  pursued  by  science — which 
pursuit  will  probably  last  for  a  long  time  yet. 
Here  is  a  term  of  mind,  a  category  of  thought 


CYTOLOGY. 


if  you  please  —  the  Beginning  —  which  nobody 
ever  saw,  or  can  see  with  eyesight  and  sun- 
light, which  is  nevertheless  to  be  reached 
somehow  by  the  microscope  in  one  of  its  spe- 
cial applications.  It  were  well  if  the  observer 
would  oftener  turn  his  vision  within  and  ex- 
amine these  categories  of  the  mind  which  he 
has  to  use  far  more  than  his  microscope.  For 
not  only  does  he  express  himself  by  them,  but 
he  thinks  by  them,  yea,  sees  by  them  —  or  pos- 
sibly does  not  see.  That  microscope  which  he 
uses  does  not  exist  in  nature  but  is  a  thought 
realized  through  evolution,  for  the  microscope 
also  has  its  history,  and  he  has  to  learn  care- 
fully how  to  employ  it,  otherwise  it  may  fool 
him,  as  he  well  knows.  Such  is  his  chief 
outer  weapon  ;  but  his  Psyche  is  full  of  inner 
weapons,  a  grand  armory  of  categories  given 
him  by  heredity  and  culture,  which  he  had 
better  study  a  little,  else  they  may  deceive 
him  worse  than  his  eye  or  his  eye-glass.  The 
difficulty  is  that  the  much-defamed  Philoso- 
phy is  in  its  deepest  purport  just  the  study 
of  these  categories  of  thought,  which  man 
has  made  and  precipitated  into  human  speech 
quite  from  its  origin.  The  two  supreme  books 
of  abstract  Thought  or  Philosophy  are  doubt- 
less Aristotle's  Metaphysics  and  Hegel's 
Logic;  both  these  ultimate  thinkers  of  the 
ultimate  turn  their  inner  mental  microscope 


THE    BIOCOSMOS—  CELLULAR. 


upon  just  the  categories  of  mind  and  describe 
their  character,  that  every  man  who  handles 
these  basic  implements  of  all  Intelligence 
may  know  what  he  is  doing,  yea,  what  he  him- 
self truly  is.  The  scientist,  to  his  and  our 
misfortune,  has  imbibed  the  strongest  preju- 
dice against  this  study  of  his  own  brain-tools 
and  often  uses  them  with  astonishing  awk- 
wardness and  ignorance,  slashing  himself 
horribly  with  the  keen-edged  contradictory 
concepts  lurking  in  his  own  words,  even  to 
the  point  of  cutting  off  his  own  head. 

Now  one  of  these  subtle  categories  of 
Thought  ensconced  in  human  language  and 
transmitted  down  the  ages,  is  just  this  voc- 
able, the  Beginning  (or  perchance  the  Becom- 
ing.) And  in  order  to  catch  the  whole  sweep 
of  it  we  must  add  its  negative  counterpart, 
the  Ceasing  —  both  then  will  be  the  Beginning 
to  be  and  the  Ceasing  to  be.  Let  any  reader 
reflect  how  many  times  a  day  he  applies  to 
special  cases  these  two  thought-forms  (called 
here  categories),  and  he  will  be  on  the  way  to 
see  what  really  fills  his  Psyche.  This  is  his 
mental  bag  stuffed  with  acquired  or  congeni- 
tal categories,  by  which  he  measures  every- 
thing, to  be  sure,  quite  unconsciously.  It 
would  seem  of  importance  to  take,  at  times,  an 
inventory  of  the  whole  bag  (which  is  the  spe- 
cial work  of  Philosophy,  or  better  yet,  of  Psy- 


CYTOLOGY.  133 

chology).  Now  the  scientist  (like  every  mor- 
tal) has  in  his  head  a  bag  full  of  such  cate- 
gories, some  of  which  have  been  picked  up 
by  himself,  others  he  has  inherited.  But  he 
keeps  it  carefully  tied  fast  in  his  unconscious 
world,  showing  a  kind  of  terror  of  it,  lest,  if 
he  once  open  it,  a  Pandora  box  of  ills  or  in- 
deed of  demons  would  fly  out  and  eat  him  up. 
One  of  the  categories,  in  fact,  the  main  one, 
of  Biology  today,  is  the  Beginning — here  the 
Beginning  of  Life.  But  the  difficulty  with 
such  Beginning  is,  that  it  is  already  the  Be- 
gun; when  seen  in  its  minutest  form  under 
the  microscope,  it  must  have  had  an  ante- 
cedent source  or  cause,  it  must  have  been  be- 
fore, and  so  it  is  not  the  Beginning.  Such 
elusive  duplicity  lurks  in  this  category  when 
sought  as  an  object  of  the  senses,  which  is  the 
scientific  object.  If  the  Beginning  thus  turns 
out  the  Begun,  the  mind,  in  intense  pursuit 
of  the  former,  must  get  back  of  the  latter  and 
find  its  source  in  something  still  smaller  or 
more  remote.  So  scientific  research  bears 
the  impress  of  an  infinitely  regressive  series, 
with  an  ever  diminishing  line  of  forms  in  pur- 
suit of  the  Inscrutable.  But  always  the  dissi- 
dence  will  be  secretly  felt  or  recognized  open- 
ly: the  Scrutable  is  not  the  Inscrutable,  the 
Seen  (of  Sense)  persists  in  being  distinct 
from  Unseen  (given  by  Mind) ;  or,  to  use 


134  THE    BIOCOSMOS— CELLULAR. 

other  terms,  the  Particular  is  not  the  Uni- 
versal. And  still  scrutator  will  and  must  con- 
tinue his  scrutiny  of  the  Inscrutible.  As  nat- 
uralist he  is  inherently  and  necessarily  teleol- 
ogic;  if  he  should  ever  attain  the  end  of  his 
investigation,  his  calling  would  be  gone. 

Accordingly,  in  this  ceaseless  ever-recur- 
rent pursuit,  he  is  in  the  profoundest  har- 
mony with  Nature  herself.  For  she  is  also 
just  this  pursuit  of  an  end  by  her 
unattainable,  that  is,  when  she  once  reaches 
it,  she  has  passed  out  of  herself  into  another 
sphere.  She  is  the  infinite  longing  or  aspir- 
ation for  the  beyond,  which  characteristic  ex- 
presses itself  in  the  endless  series — or  the 
unexpressed  or  indeed  inexpressible.  Nature, 
therefore,  cannot  utter  herself,  or  rather  her 
utterance  is  the  striving  for  utterance,  like 
the  song  of  a  bird  or  perchance  the  famous 
music  of  the  spheres.  Ever  approaching  the 
goal,  she  cannot  quite  touch  it — and  remain 
herself.  As  Nature,  so  the  Naturalist;  his 
consciousness  becomes  a  part  of  what  he 
works  in,  despite  itself;  his  Psyche  goes  back 
and  assimilates  itself  to  that  of  Physis — 
which  fact  is  verily  its  worth  and  glory.  The 
Ego  of  the  scientist  is  undoubtedly  self-re- 
turning or  self-conscious,  like  every  other 
Ego ;  still  it  uses  this  power  in  its  own  way : 
to  return  upon  Nature  from  which  it  has 


CYTOLOGY.  135 

really  evolved,  and  to  become  one  with  her, 
especially  on  her  psychical  side,  and  to  articu- 
late her  who  has  no  articulation.  This  the 
scientist  does  for  his  time  and  people — a  serv- 
ice of  the  highest  order.  For  the  evolution- 
ary clock  strikes  the  hour  when  the  man  has 
to  go  back  to  his  own  evolution  in  and  out 
of  Nature,  and  take  the  same  up  into  himself 
that. he  may  make  the  step  in  advance. 

A  little  study,  then,  it  is  well  to  give  to  the 
leading  category  or  defining  term  of  Cytol- 
ogy, which  is  declared  to  be  the  science  of  the 
Beginning  of  Life,  since  this  tool  of  mind  has 
its  subtle  character  which  ought  to  be  under- 
stood by  those  who  employ  it  as  a  scientific 
concept. 

When  it  comes  to  the  right  ordering  of  this 
cell-science,  several  points  of  view  may  be 
taken.  There  are  many  kinds  of  cells,  for  in- 
stance, and  they  show  various  characters. 
Some  have  a  far  tougher  vitality  than  others, 
seeming  to  concentrate  a  greater  strength 
and  intensity  of  life.  Birth,  maturation,  de- 
cline, death  move  through  their  periods  in  the 
cell  as  in  man,  of  whom  it  is  in  so  many  ways 
the  organic  prototype  as  well  as  the  constit- 
uent. Millions  of  lives  are  being  lived  in  our 
life,  each  with  its  rise,  bloom  and  decay.  Each 
inhabitant  of  the  Earth — and  there  are  sup- 
posed to  be  sixteen  hundred  millions  of  them 


136  THE    BIOCOSMOS— CELLULAR. 

— has  at  least  as  many  living  inhabitants  as 
the  Earth,  in  his  own  body,  or  probably  in 
his  brains.  The  cellular  population  we  may 
thus  conceive  in  every  man  to  be  equal  to  the 
human  population  of  the  globe  (usually  said 
to  be  many  times  more).  Therein  he  is  the 
epitome  of  all  men,  the  cell  makes  him  such 
even  in  Nature.  Moreover,  the  round  of  life 
is  always  going  on  with  these  little  creatures 
—millions  of  births  and  millions  of  funerals 
from  the  daily  pomp  of  your  individual  globe. 
It  is  evident,  however,  that  your  organism 
has  its  own  collective  life  as  distinct  from 
that  of  its  cellular  denizens  of  whom  it  is  made 
up.  In  other  words,  they  are  associated,  and 
are  severally  members  of  a  greater  whole  to 
whose  end  they  contribute,  and  which  looks 
after  them.  They  are  not  autonomous  units 
merely  aggregated  together,  but  are  subordi- 
nated to  a  center,  indeed  to  many  centers  in 
graduation  reaching  up  to  the  highest.  Now 
this  tendency  of  the  cell  towards  association 
may  well  be  regarded  as  its  pivotal  fact.  It 
associates  to  form  all  the  organs  of  the  body 
and  then  to  form  the  latter  ?s  entirety.  When 
the  cell  becomes  autonomous,  or  more  espe- 
cially when  a  community  of  them  sets  up  for 
itself  as  independent,  disease  has  started, 
and  a  cell-war  opens  between  the  rebels  and 
the  faithful,  which  may  end  in  dissolution 


CYTOLOGY.  137 

or  restoration.  So  a  negative,  fighting,  col- 
liding world  dawns  far  down  among  these 
micro-organisms  of  cell-life. 

Perchance  the  chief  interest  here  is  to  ob- 
serve the  faint  reflex,  the  far-off  forecast,  as 
it  were,  of  human  association,  of  man  form- 
ing his  social  institutions.  Each  individual 
person  strives  to  become  a  member  of  a 
greater  organism  which  integrates  him  with 
his  fellow-man  in  state  and  society,  as  the  cell 
pushes  for  union  with  its  fellow-cell  in  the 
animal  body.  Stages  of  the  same  great  pro- 
cess of  evolution  we  may  deem  both  these 
facts,  though  they  be  very  different  rungs  of 
the  one  colossal  ladder,  rising  from  Nature  to 
Mind,  a  veritable  Jacobs-ladder  from  Earth 
to  Heaven.  The  cell  is  already  in  its  way  in- 
stitutional, and  builds  its  world  of  institu- 
tional order,  which  has  its  control,  its  author- 
ity, its  law,  its  constitution.  It  may  be  said 
that  our  human  organism,  if  it  be  true  to  that 
deepest  principle  of  itself  which  made  it  an 
organism,  cannot  stop  in  its  career  of  organ- 
ization, but  must  organize  itself  with  others  of 
its  like.  The  cell  is,  therefore,  in  its  supreme 
aspect,  associative,  and  keeps  generating  as- 
sociation in  its  round  of  life,  being  the  bearer 
of  the  same  not  only  through  the  lapse  of 
time,  but  up  the  many-graded  steps  of  evolu- 
tion. We  may  say  that  it  shows  the  aspira- 


138  THE    BIOCOSMOS— CELLULAR. 

tion  to  become  purely  associative  without  the 
physical  counterpart  which  it  has  in  Nature. 
This  instinct  of  the  cell,  as  it  can  be  called, 
we  may  at  this  point  identify  as  its  psychical 
portion,  which  determines  it  to  ever-renewed 
and  higher  association,  whose  culminating 
point  in  Nature  is  the.  human  organism.  But 
this  is  again  individual,  which  must  rise  out 
of  its  limitation,  out  of  its  mere  individuality, 
and  seek  to  be  universal — which  is  manifest- 
ed in  association,  whereby  the  one  shares  in- 
the  all.  The  cell,  we  repeat,  showed  that  same 
associative  striving  in  its  little  framework, 
which  was  the  Psyche  belaboring  and  unfold- 
ing the  Physis,  or  the  cell-soul  in  the  cell- 
body.  We  have  already  noted  theoretically 
the  point  at  which  the  Psyche  seems  to  pass 
from  the  outside  of  Nature  to  the  inside,  and 
Life  begins  perchance  in  some  pre-cellular 
condition  of  matter,  wherewith  the  Biocos- 
mos  opens,  at  least,  in  thought.  Throughout 
this  sphere  the  cell  becomes  more  and  more 
associative,  its 'Psyche  carrying  along  and 
evolving  its  Physis,  up  the  ascending  stairway 
of  all  organic  forms,  till  at  last  in  human  in- 
stitutions the  Psyche  gets  to  be  its  own  self- 
conscious  process  and  associates  itself  pure- 
ly. So  we  may  say  that  the  cell  from  the  be- 
ginning has  the  aspiration  in  Nature  to  be- 
come institutional  though  strictly  it  cannot 


CYTOLOGY.  139 

reach  such  a  goal  without  transcending  Na- 
ture and  the  Biocosmos,  which,  however,  con- 
stitutes its  sphere. 

Consequently  we  shall  divide  this  realm  of 
Cytology,  the  science  of  the  cell-world  proper, 
according  to  itsdeepest  criterion,  which  is  its 
associative  character.  The  first  of  its  stages 
is  the  pre-cellular  protoplasmic  mass  of  vi- 
talism, the  potentiality  of  all  Life,  Nature 
becoming  cell.  The  second  stage  is  the  cell 
separated,  and  organized,  as  self-active  and 
self-^ntained  individual,  the  unicellular  or- 
ganism in  its  primal  autonomy.  The  third  is 
the  organized  multi-cellular  stage,  the  asso- 
ciation of  cells  to  form  all  the  higher  organ- 
isms of  Nature,  vegetal  and  animal. 

I.  Pre-cellular  Life.  First  of  all  let  it  be 
remembered  that  this  has  never  been  opened 
up  to  the  senses,  it  is  as  yet  a  speculative  en- 
tity, toward  which  biological  science  with  its 
varied  laboratory  equipment  is  in  hot  pur- 
suit. Already  it  has  been  stated  often  enough 
that  the  First  Life  (primum  vivum,  proto- 
hioticon),  has  not  been  reached  microscopic- 
ally or  otherwise,  and  only  exists  for  us  as  a 
postulate  of  thought.  Still  this  is  what  the 
grand  army  of  biologists  are  seeking  more  or 
less  unconsciously,  namely,  the  physical  man- 
ifestation of  their  psychical  concept.  Can  we 
not  find  in  Nature  what  exists  in  our  minds 


140  THE    BIOCOSMOS— CELLULAR. 

as  her  very  starting-point  and  source  of  ex- 
istence? The  result  of  this  search  is  research 
which  insists  upon  searching  again  and  again, 
and  approaching  closer  and  closer  toward  the 
small  and  smallest ;  much  is  indeed  picked  up 
on  the  way,  even  if  the  end  be  as  yet  un- 
reached — whereof  the  record  is  set  down  in 
works  of  biology,  and  constitutes  the  main 
subject-matter  of  this  science. 

In  this  aspect  pre-cellular  Life  has  its 
striking  analogy  to  Ether.  Both  are  hypo- 
thetical concepts  lying  far  back  at  the  source 
of  their  respective  stages  of  Nature.  One 
is  the  ultimate  of  the  Biocosmos,  the  other  is 
the  ultimate  of  the  Diacosmos,  each  is  con- 
ceived as  the  last  constituent,  as  well  as  the 
primal  origin  of  its  own  distinct  sphere. 
Hence  one  is  the  ideal  goal  of  the  biologist 
which  he  wishes  to  find  real;  the  other  is  the 
ideal  goal  of  the  physicist,  which  he  seeks 
to  see  in  its  sensuous  counterpart.  Psychi- 
cally, therefore,  both  scientists  are  quite 
alike  in  their  different  fields  of  research ;  each 
is  hurrying  to  overtake  the  incorporate 
Psyche  at  its  start,  to  behold  the  ideal  and 
the  real  just  at  the  first  point  of  their  con- 
junction. Still  further  we  may  push  the 
thought:  the  ultimate  unit  of  Ether  (say  the 
Etherion)  may  be  found  to  be  one  with  the 
ultimate  unit  of  Life  (say  the  gemmule), 


CYTOLOGY. 


though  both  these  units  today  are  remotely 
hypothetical,  and  yet  more  remote  is  their 
oneness.  Still  in  this  way  we  may  take  the 
speculative  pleasure  of  viewing  the  primor- 
dial bond  between  the  dead  and  living  worlds, 
or  perchance  the  central  generative  point 
from  which  starts  the  grand  bifurcation  of 
all  Nature  into  organic  and  inorganic,  which 
mighty  twins  may  be  well  supposed  to  have 
had  a  common  womb. 

From  these  far  speculative  outreaches 
which  have  become  indeed  an  integrating  ele- 
ment of  today's  Natural  Science,  we  -shall 
come  back  to  consider  a  few  things  about  this 
primal  Life  (Protobioticon).  The  first  con- 
cept which  may  be  formulated  concerning  it 
is  that  here  lies  the  scene  or  arena  of  the  in- 
dividuation  of  Life,  the  transition  from  the 
protoplasmic  mass  to  the  first  differentiation 
of  the  living  individual,  in  whatever  earliest 
form  the  latter  may  appear.  This  pre-or- 
ganic  field  may  be  conceived  to  stretch  be- 
tween the  Inorganic  and  Organic,  to  consti- 
tute that  bridge  of  which  so  much  has  been 
said.  To  be  sure,  one  may  well  ask  whence 
comes  this  protoplasmic  mass  which  is  here 
taken  for  granted  ?  Merely  the  hypothetical 
starting-point,  we  may  say;  but  meanwhile 
the  deeper  question  rises  to  the  surface  :  What 
is  the  origin  of  that  power  of  living  individ- 


142  THE    BIOCOSMOS— CELLULAR. 

nation  with  which  this  elemental  stuff  is  en- 
dowed! Manifestly  here  we  glimpse  the  psy- 
chical strain  which  runs  through  all  Nature 
and  propels  it  from  without  and  from  with- 
in toward  the  self-conscious  individual. 

The  next  point  which  we  may  consider  is 
that  this  peculiar  antecedent  life-slime,  this 
unindividuated  mass  vitally  individuating  it- 
self, must  have  arisen  somewhere  and  some- 
when  on  our  globe  after  it  had  reached  a  cer- 
tain stage  in  its  planetary  evolution.  Not 
when  it  was  a  nebulous  piece  of  fire-mist  just 
flung-  off  from  the  Heliosphere ;  not  when  it 
had  cooled  down  for  many  millions  of  years, 
but  was  still  red-hot  and  would  not  allow  the 
formation  of  water  on  its  surface;  a  much 
later  epoch  must  be  taken  when  the  Earth  is 
ready  with  air,  soil  and  moisture,  and  actu- 
ally evolves  this  earliest  life-stuff,  about  one 
hundred  million  years  ago,  according  to  cer- 
tain scientists.  On  some  favorable  part  of 
our  planet  it  must  have  started ;  as  the  Earth 
was  still  hot  in,  portions,  it  has  been  conjec- 
tured that  the  Arctic  regions  first  produced 
those  limits  of  temperature  in  which  Life 
arises  and  thrives.  Hence  from  the  poles,  now 
grown  too  cold  for  vital  thrift,  the  plant  and 
animal  have  overspread  the  other  zones, 
which  possibly  in  their  turn  may  get  too 
frigid.  And  still  but  a  very  small  pa'rt  of  the 


CYTOLOGY.  143 

total  terrestrial  mass  of  matter  ever  became 
vitalized;  a  ten-millionth  of  it  is  one  well- 
known  estimate.  In  many  ways  Life  is  lim- 
ited in  quantity ;  in  fact,  it  often  limits  itself 
with  a  destructive  violence.  Yet  this  quan- 
tity has  remained  about  the  same  through  the 
later  geologic  ages,  it  is  supposed;  still  one 
is  inclined  to  think  that,  as  the  Earth  kept 
cooling  off  in  the  earliest  stages,  the  life-area 
of  it,  starting  from  the  polar  point,  must  have 
enlarged,  and  therewith  in  proportion  the 
primal  life-stuff  must  have  increased. 

So  in  one  form  or  other  we  have  to  con- 
ceive a  primal  original  reservoir  of  life-stuff, 
be  its  locality  arctic  or  equatorial,  in  the  Sar- 
gasso Sea  or  in  the  Nile-bed,  or  indeed  ev- 
erywhere. Moreover  we  hardly  dare  limit 
this  elemental  protoplasmic  material  to  early 
time;  it  still  must  exist  in  some  way  and  be 
at  work,  if  it  could  only  be  found;  that  first 
creative  living  individuation  of  Nature  has 
never  stopped,  can.  never  stop  but  with  Life 
itself. 

Given,  then,  our  planetary  evolution  from 
the  Heliosphere,  Earth-life  must  have  arisen 
in  time  and  place  along  with  the  right  tem- 
perature and  other  accordant  conditions,  and 
attained  a  certain  amount  of  vital  material 
whose  quality  has  been  improving  ever  since 
through  evolution  without  much  change  in 


144  THE    BIOCOSM08— CELLULAR. 

quantity,  as  is  supposed.  At  a  given  stage  it 
would  seem  that  the  Earth  produced  its  full 
quota  of  life-stuff  (Protobioticon),  which  it 
has  kept  supplied  from  that  time  on,  such 
being  all  that  it  could  do  in  this  line.  When 
our  globe  broke  through  the  previous  Unlife 
into  Life,  must  be  regarded  as  a  chief  act  in 
its  evolutionary  drama.  When  long  ages  aft- 
erward Life  broke  through  into  Self-con- 
sciousness, was  also  a  chief  act  in  that  same 
evolutionary  drama ;  between  which  two  acts 
lies  our  Biocosmos;  where,  when  and  into 
what  Self-consciousness  is  to  break  through, 
belongs  to  the  future,  and  will  be  another 
great  act,  possibly  the  greatest,  of  our  ter- 
restrial evolution.  So  we  may  put  together 
some  of  the  huge  steps  of  our  planet's  jour- 
ney; such  a  step  we  are  now  trying  to  grasp 
in  the  elemental  life-stuff. 

The  cellular  organism  which,  in  its  smallest 
form  is  already  very  complex  and  composite, 
presupposes  some .  sort  of  organic  material 
for  its  use.  j^nd  we  should  not  forget  that 
this  stage  is  the  Psyche  getting  inside  the 
Physis  and  starting  its  internal  control  of 
matter.  And  its  method  seems  to  be  individ- 
uation,  the  protoplasmic  mass  is  turning  to 
living  units,  however  minute  these  may  be. 
And  in  one  way  or  other  this  is  peculiarly 
the  work  of  the  active  Psyche  (the  Psycho- 


CYTOLOGY.  145 

sis),  imparting  to  tiny  points  of  matter  its 
process,  whereby  they  become  alive.  Again 
we  may  bring  to  mind  that  the  biology  of  to- 
day has  as  its  chief  object  to  catch  Nature  in- 
dividuating herself  into  these  living  units 
whose  primal  forms  are  cells. 

So  we  are  next  to  pass  out  of  pur  specula- 
tive postulate  of  a  Pre-cellular  Biocosmos, 
its  first  stage,  as  yet  unrevealed  to  the  strictly 
scientific  eye,  but  its  ever-present  necessary 
pre-supposition  and  indeed  the  ideal  object 
of  its  search  and  research.  We  have  reached 
the  single  cell,  separated,  individuated,  vis- 
ible, organized,  with  its  own  round  of  life. 
This  is  therefore  the  second  or  separated 
stage  of  the  Cellular  Biocosmos  as  a  whole— 
a  vast  living  territory,  by  no  means  yet  fully 
explored.  We  may  call  it  the  unicellular 
world,  with  an  enormous  and  varied  popula- 
tion of  individuals. 

II.  Unicellular  Life.  Actually  now  lies 
before  us  the  visible  unit  of  all  Life,  a  com- 
plete organism  even  if  microscopic,  the  first 
vital  individuation,  as  far  as  can  at  present 
be  seen — the  single  cell.  In  a  sense  it  is  the 
passage  from  a  hypothetical  element  to  the 
real  appearance,  the  ideal  clothing  itself  in 
its  material  counterpart,  the  unformed  or 
purely  formable  taking  form  to  our  vision. 
The  organic  universe  is  now  seen  split  up 


146  THE    BIOCOSMOS— CELLULAR. 

into  its  living  atoms,  or  elemental  units,  in 
a  state  of  complete  separation.  Here  we  may 
note  that  this  unicellular  Life  is  also  multi- 
cellular — that  is,  indefinitely  reproduced  and 
repeated.  Each  is  primarily  taken  as  an  in- 
dependent whole  with  its  own  entire  round 
of  life,  even  if  they  be  externally  connected. 
A  string  or  mass  of  single  cells  is  properly 
multicellular,  though  not  internally  interre- 
lated. 

Still  we  have  to  recall  that  this  elemental 
unit  of  Life  is  an  organism  which  is  a  result 
of  something  gone  before;  it  is  a  conse- 
quent which  presupposes  an  antecedent;  or 
as  previously  set  forth,  it  is  the  beginning 
which  has  already  begun.  Thus  it  keeps 
throwing  back  of  itself  its  own  starting-point, 
which  the  scientist  at  once  sets  out  to  explore 
as  a  new  object.  And  so  the  search  keeps  on 
for  finding  the  ultimate  unit  of  Nature,  who 
always  turns  out  twofold,  in  accord  with  her 
deepest  character. 

The  general  process  of  the  cell  has  been 
given  on  a  former  page,  with  its  central  nu- 
cleus and  protoplasmic  body  ever  dividing 
and  forming  new  cells.  In  the  detailed  ac- 
counts of  the  cellular  organs  and  parts,  many 
other  items,  such  as  the  nucleus,  the  centro- 
some,  the  granules,  etc.,  have  been  carefully 
studied  and  described  by  the  biologist,  but 


CYTOLOGY.  f        147 

these  we  shall  have  to  pass  over.  We  behold 
the  leading  fact  of  the  self-separation  of  the 
body  starting  in  the  nucleus  which  re-unites 
the  protoplasm  and  forms  the  new  cell.  A 
cellular  image  of  the  Psychosis  we  may  well 
see  in  this  process,  which  thus  reveals  its 
psychical  phase. 

A  good  deal  of  biological  discussion  at  the 
present  time  turns  on  this  nucleus.  The  com- 
plete cell  has  it,  but  the  incomplete  cell  seems 
to  show  it  in  a  state  of  gradual  formation. 
The  Bacterion,  probably  the  least  developed 
living  cell  of  Life,  possesses  the  nucleus  only 
in  a  very  incipient  stage,  if  at  all — some  in- 
vestigators see  it,  some  do  not.  The  transi- 
tion out  of  the  pre-cellular  Life  into  the  cel- 
lular, would  appear  to  take  place  in  the  nu- 
cleus, which  thus  comes  to  be  the  primal  cen- 
ter of  vital  individuation.  A  little  mass  of 
protoplasm  which  at  the  start  shows  no  dif- 
ference between  nucleus  and  cytoplasm  (or 
cell-stuff)  somehow  gets  nucleated  and  there- 
with soon  forms  a  cellular  body.  The  primor- 
dial living  individual  of  the  planet  is  then 
born — the  cell,  at  first  quite  isolated,  inde- 
pendent, unassociated.  Again  the  question 
rises,  Whence  this  nucleus  with  its  power  of 
self-separation  and  incorporation?  Mani- 
festly here  is  another  node  of  Life  in  which 
Psyche  is  directly  at  work,  but  can  be  seen 


148  THE    BIOCOSM08— CELLULAR. 

only  in  the  results.  Still  another  point  to  be 
mentioned  is  that  these  early  unicellular  or- 
ganisms cannot  with  any  definiteness  be  dis- 
tinguished as  plant  or  animal — such  bifurca- 
tion has  hardly  yet  taken  place  corporeally. 
What  is  it  thatdetermines  the  seeminglyunde- 
termined  cell  to  its  future,  be  this  vegetal  or 
animal?  Such  a  problem,  opens  into  another 
prolific  discussion  of  biologists  on  pre-f  orma- 
tion  and  epigenesis,  which  must  here  be  omit- 
ted. The  claim  has  been  made  that  this  uni- 
cellular Life  is  greater  in  quantity  than  all 
other  forms  of  Life  combined,  that  it  em- 
braces more  than  half  of  the  total  Life-stuff 
of  the  globe. 

The  Bacterion,  then,  may  stand  as  the  near- 
est approach  to  the  transition  from  Unlife 
to  Life.  Possibly  upon  this  fact  can  be 
grounded  its  destructive  character  when  it 
gets  a  strong  foothold  in  higher  organisms 
like  the  human.  It  disintegrates  them,  turn- 
ing them  back  into  these  primordial  cells 
which  lead  to  Unlife,  and  which  are  negative 
to  associated  cell-life.  Thus  the  Bacterion 
has  brought  forth  a  special  science  of  itself 
(Bacteriology)  which  has  an  important  place 
in  Pathology. 

But  not  all  of  these  Bacteria  are  destruc- 
tive, not  all  have  their  tendency  toward  death. 
Others  are  life-promoting;  in  fact,  the  most 


CTTOLOG7.  149 

appear  of  tliis  sort.  The  human  body  is  re- 
ported to  be  full  of  these  micro-organisms, 
which  perform  important  vital  functions;  it 
would  appear  that  they  still  are  engaged  in 
their  original  action  of  bridging  over  the  In- 
organic into  the  Organic  for  the  higher  or- 
ganisms; they  are  the  primordial  means  in 
this  our  living  body  of  transforming  Unlife 
into  Life. 

The  Bacterion  is  usually  declared  to  be 
vegetal  in  character,  though  not  by  all  biolo- 
gists; on  the  other  hand  the  first  animal  is 
affirmed  to  be  the  Amoeba.  Both  are  unicellu- 
lar, microscopic  and  are  of  many  different 
kinds  or  species.  The  two  would  seem  to  rep- 
resent the  first  bifurcation  of  pre-cellular 
Life  into  the  two  great  lines  of  organic  evo- 
lution in  plant  and  animal. 

The  indifferentiated  mass  of  pre-cellular 
Life  is  transformed  primarily  into  single 
cells,  which,  as  already  recorded,  have  be- 
come the  special  content  of  biological  inves- 
tigation: In  the  cell,  accordingly,  Life  ap- 
pears for  the  first  time  as  individuated,  as  a 
peripheral  piece  of  matter,  with  its  own  inner 
process  continually  going  on.  Here  is  what 
we  may  call  its  primal  divisive  stage;  there 
is  a  separation,  approximately  infinite,  of 
the  original  unseparated  material  into  vital 
centers  with  their  bodies,  And  having  once 


150  THE    BIOCOSMOS— CELLULAR. 

started,  this  corporeal  individuation  of  Life 
will  not  stop  till  it  reaches  the  topmost  form 
of  Nature,  rising  through  a  long  series  of  or- 
ganisms, from  the  smallest  to  the  largest. 

One  may  ask  concerning  the  cause  or  source 
of  this  individuation  of  Life.  Is  there  no 
other  way  for  the  evolution  of  the  Biocosmos 
than  through  the  living  individual!  Nature 
takes  just  that  meth'od — why?  She  must,  it 
lies  in  the  deepest  necessity  of  her  origin. 
We  notice  the  same  separative  tendency  to- 
ward individuals  in  the  inorganic  Cosmos. 
The  sky  shows  it  in  the  stars,  in  the  nebulae, 
in  the  planets,  in  the  Earth  which  originally 
separated  from  the  Sun,  and  became  itself  an 
individual, which  was  to  carry  forward  its  own 
primal  division  indefinitely.  Here  we  may 
recur  to  that  fundamental  thought  from  which 
this  treatise  starts  in  the  germ;  Nature  in 
its  total  sweep  is  the  second  or  separative 
stage  in  the  process  of  the  All  (or  the  Pamp- 
sychosis).  So  in  this  case,  as  in  every  other, 
we  have  to  go  back  to  the  Universe  to  get  the 
ultimate  ground  of  individuality,  which  is  a 
phase  of  its  partition.  The  Biocosmical  cell 
is  a  living  individual,  which  is  perpetually 
dividing  itself  anew,  repeating  itself,  repro- 
ducing itself.  Why  does  it  thus?  It  is  re- 
enacting  the  All  of  which  it  is  a  part,  and  it 
can  only  be  a  part  of  the  Universe  but  by 


CYTOLOGY. 


having  the  universal  process  within  itself. 
And  so  we  have  to  account  ultimately  for  this 
inner  propulsion  of  Life  to  individuate  itself 
—it  is  therein  fulfilling  its  part  and  place  in 
the  movement  of  the  All  of  which  it  must 
make  itself  an  integral  portion  in  order  to  be 
of  the  same. 

But  we  come  back  to  the  fact  that  the  ear- 
liest living  individual  in  the  universe,  as  far 
as  we  now  know,  is  the  cell  ;  with  it  every  or- 
ganism, however  complex,  starts  on  its  career 
of  development  ;  als.o  with  it  the  world,  of  or- 
ganisms starts  visibly,  moving  along  the  lines 
of  its  development.  Man  begins  with  incor- 
porating himself  in  a  cell,  which  has  been 
often  called  his  prison,  the  original  incarcer- 
ation of  his  Psyche.  It  is  the  cell  which  con- 
nects man  (and  all  living  existence)  with  the 
past  ;  he  receives  his  inheritance  of  character 
from  his  fathers  through  the  cell;  all  the 
progress  of  the  ages  has  to  pass  into  and  out 
of  the  cell,  the  World-Spirit  indeed  cannot  be 
excused  from  this  cellular  experience.  It  is, 
then,  the  point  of  transition  and  of  transmis- 
sion from  parent  to  child  in  all  Life  and  what 
Life  carries  —  arts,  sciences,  institutions,  civ- 
ilisations. We  may  conceive  it  likewise  as 
the  connecting  link  between  what  has  been  and 
what  is  to  be,  the  little  genetic  dot  which  is 
eternally  propagating  the  past  into  the  fu- 


152  THE    BIOCOSMOS— CELLULAR. 

ture.  Very  interesting  becomes  the  unicel- 
lular Amoeba,  simply  dividing  itself  and  re- 
producing another  cell  like  itself,  when  we 
behold  it  in  its  farthest  significance  as  the 
protypal  act  of  Life,  even  the  human.  Thus 
we  may  contemplate  the  cell  as  the  first  liv- 
ing individuation  of  the  Universe,  the  primal 
vital  embodiment  of  the  Pampsychosis. 

But  it  lies  in  the  character  of  the  cell  that 
it  cannot  stay  merely  a  separate  individual, 
or  a  string  of  protozoa.  It  shows  the  bent 
to  organize  itself — a  psychical  bent,  we  con- 
ceive it ;  the  many  divided  units  push  of  them- 
selves toward  an  associated  unity,  subordi- 
nating them,  yet  preserving  them  in  a  new 
order.  This  brings  us  to  a  new  stage  in  the 
development  of  the  cell,  in  fact,  its  very  pur- 
pose in  the  Biocosmos,  which  it  is  now  to 
build,  being  both  the  builder  and  the  built, 
even  furnishing  itself  as  the  brick  of  the  edi- 
fice. Or  more  simply  conceived,  each  cell  is 
now  made  the  unit  of  association  which  pro- 
duces all  the  vajied  organic  forms  of  living 
existence. 

III.  Associated  Cellular  Life.  The  pres- 
ent sphere  is  usually  named  simply  multi- 
cellular  in  biological  books;  but  the  term 
gives  a  wrong  suggestion,  merely  that  of  a 
multiplicity  of  cells,  or  of  a  cellular  aggre- 
gate. Such  a  conception  belongs  still  to  the 


CYTOLOGY.  153 

separative  stage  just  considered;  whereas 
now  we  are  to  emphasize  cell-organization, 
or,  employing  a  more  decisive  word,  cell-as- 
sociation. Moreover  this  word  correlates  cel- 
lular Life  with  its  highest  manifestation  in 
the  human  form,  and  even  beyond  it,  hint- 
ing human  institutions,  which  also  rise 
through  association.  All  living  organs  of  an 
organism,  and  the  organism  itself  show  this 
associated  cellular  Life,  which  we  are  to  con- 
sider next. 

At  this  point,  then,  enters  a  pivotal  activity 
of  the  Cellular  Biocosmos,  namely,  the  asso- 
ciation of  cells.  Cellular  autonomy,  which  we 
have  seen  to  be  the  previous  stage  of  the  cell 
evolving  from  the  protoplasmic  life-mass, 
evolves  in  its  turn  from  its  separated,  individ- 
ualistic, autonomous  condition  into  a  newly 
organized,  associated  Life,  in  which  the  cel- 
lular community  becomes  truly  manifested 
and  explicit.  Still  we  must  not  forget  that 
the  cell  in  itself  was  already  the  implicit  com- 
munity, and  showed  many  marks  of  its  so- 
called  complexity  in  its  incipient  organs. 
Thus  it  too  manifests  the  inner  propulsion 
to  form  all  its  distinctive  parts  into  an  or- 
ganic whole ;  this  is  indeed  its  psychical  side. 
But  the  same  power  will  seize  the  entire  cell- 
body  and  integrate  it  with  the  higher  organ- 
isms of  plant  and  animal.  Thus  a  multi-eel- 


154  THE    BIOCOSMOS— CELLULAR. 

lular  associated  Life  dawns,  which  is  likewise 
to  have  a  great  career,  and  which  has  the  ad- 
vantage of  visibility,  of  unfolding  within  the 
limits  of  the  eye — which  eye  is  itself  a  part  of 
the  same  evolution. 

Such  is  the  rise  from  the  divisive  principle 
of  the  previous  unicellular  stage  of  cell-life, 
the  second  stage  of  wjiat  we  here  call  Cytol- 
ogy. The  independent  cell  has  been  produced 
and  then  has  reproduced  itself  in  Nature  with 
a  vast  multiplicity,  but  this  individual  inde- 
pendence passes  over  into  inter-dependence, 
the  outer  relation  is  transmuted  into  an  in- 
ner relation ;  the  single  cell  gives  up  its  isola- 
tion through  its  own  psychical  instinct  and 
becomes  social,  communal,  and  so  reflects 
from  afar  the  institutional  world,  toward 
which  it  is  mounting  on  Life's  ladder. 

Moreover  the  simple  elemental  uniformity 
of  the  original  cell  changes,  adapting  itself 
to  its  new  place  and  duty  in  the  larger  or- 
ganism of  which  it  has  become  a  member. 
The  cellular  structure  of  each  organ  of  the 
human  body,  for  instance,  becomes  different 
— that  of  the  muscle  is  not  that  of  the  nerve. 
So  we  observe  a  great  differentiation  of  the 
cell  through  its  associated  life  with  other 
cells  in  the  same  organism.  And  in  different 
organisms,  on  the  other  hand,  we  find  a  mar- 
velous similarity  of  cells  belonging  to  the 


CYTOLOGY.  155 

same  organ,  for  instance,  in  the  liver,  from 
the  low  to  the  high  animal.  And  in  this 
sphere  of  the  cell  new  relationships  appear  in 
organisms  seemingly  far  apart.  The  blood 
of  each  animal  has  been  found  to  be  different 
from  that  of  any  other  animal,  with  relations 
near  and  remote.  Hence  the  blood  has  been 
made  the  basis  of  ordering  anew  all  the  ani- 
mated world.  For  example,  the  walrus, 
through  its  blood,  is  declared  to  be  more  deep- 
ly allied  in  its  microscopic  character  to  the 
horse  than  to  its  next-door  neighbor  in  the 
same  element  of  salt  water,  namely,  the 
whale.  This  suggests  a  new  classification  of 
animals  very  different  from  the  old  one,  which 
looked  more  to  the  large  outer  form  or  to  its 
bony  structure  (for  instance,  to  the  vertebral 
column).  In  such  manner  the  inner  circula- 
tory system  going  around  the  organic  cycle 
and  feeding  all  its  activity,  furnishes  a  fresh 
basis  of  the  outer  system  of  living  forms.  So 
classification  is  looking  to  the  micro-organic 
world,  having  been  hitherto  macro-organic. 
And  the  consanguinity  of  the  total  Biocos- 
mos  may  yet  have  to  be  settled  and  ordered 
by  a  microscopic  examination  of  the  actual 
blood-kinship  of  its  entire  population,  vegetal 
and  animal — for  the  plant  also  has  its  kind 
of  blood.  Meanwhile  the  thought  lies  open 
that  some  more  pivotal  system  than  the  cir- 


156  THE    BIOCOSM08— CELLULAR. 

dilatory  (possibly  the  nervous)  -may  yet  be 
found  for  the  deeper  ordering  of  the  present 
vast  rather  chaotic  menagerie  of  Biocosmical 
shapes. 

This  leads  us  to  another  somewhat  similar 
consideration:  the  Psyche  of  the  biologist 
himself  is  in  a  condition  corresponding  to  the 
foregoing  unicellular  stage,  as  revealed  by 
his  works.  Wonderful  is  his  cellular  indus- 
try, but  he  seems  unable  to  integrate  his  vast 
details  into  a  complete  organism;  cell  after 
cell  he  adds,  keeping  up  an  almost  infinite 
division  (a  kind  of  intellectual  mitosis,  to  use 
one  of  his  terms).  We  conceive  the  hundreds 
of  biological  investigators  now  found  in  ev- 
ery part  of  the  globe;  each  one  is  reproduc- 
ing by  some  sort  of  fission  that  original 
thought-cell  of  his  science  till  the  quantity 
of  individuals  overwhelm  us  with  their  chaotic 
multiplicity,  and  we  start  to  praying  for  a 
deliverer :  0,  for  some  organizer  of  this  scien- 
tific cell-world,  some  categorizer — perchance 
a  Darwin  even  with  his  limited  Natural  Selec- 
tion! So,  we  pray  in  tribulation  of  spirit; 
but  the  scientist,  as  the  report  flies,  does  not 
listen  to  prayer,  does  not  even  believe  in  it; 
accordingly  the  outsider  has  to  run  his  own 
lines  of  organisation,  if  he  feels  the  need  of 
them — which  need,  as  Psyche,  he  cannot  help 
feeling  now  and  then.  So  we  behold  every- 


CYTOLOGY.  157 

where  an  associated  cell-life,  but  an  associat- 
ed science  of  cell-life,  with  all  its  members 
duly  ordered  and  organized,  is  what  has  yet 
to  appear. 

Will  man  ever  be  able  to  control  directly 
this  cell-life  of  plant  and  animal,  and  also 
of  himself!  Indirectly  he  does  so  already. 
At  present  he  is  occupied  with  finding  out 
this  cellular  existence  and  with  formulating 
some  of  its  laws.  But  he  would  seem  to  be 
on  his  way  toward  getting  hold  of  its  associa- 
tive power,  which  has  so  many  analogies  to 
his  own.  Cell-association  intimates  man-as- 
sociation and  is  prophetic  of  it,  and  may  be 
taken  as  the  primordial  push  towards  it  in 
the  movement  of  Life.  Indeed  each  individ- 
ual cell  of  the  human  organism,  as  the  bearer 
and  propagator  of  past  inheritances,  is  the 
arena  of  conflict  between  transmitted  traits 
of  millions  of  ancestors,  especially  if  Life  on 
our  planet  reaches  back  a  hundred  million  of 
years.  The  cell,  is,  therefore,  a  brief  abstract 
of  the  man,  his  little  eidolon,  seeking  to  realize 
association;  yea,  we  may  conceive  it  as  an 
image,  condensed  in  the  smallest  space  and  as 
yet  undeveloped,  of  human  society,  of  whose 
institutions  it  is  a  far-away  pre-figurement. 
In  fact,  it  is  their  actual  living  germ,  which 
is  slowly  to  evolve  into  the  structure  of  man 
himself  and  then  into  his  institutional  world. 


158  THE    BIOCOSMOS— CELLULAR. 

Of  course  we  are  not  to  forget  the  part  of 
Psyche  in  this  long  evolution,  which  is  already 
working  in  the  cell  and  is,  step  hy  step,  im- 
pelling it  forward — into  what?  Into  itself  as 
the  completed  psychical  process. 

Naturalists  have  observed  the  greater  suc- 
cess in  Life  of  those  animals  which  associate. 
It  is  noteworthy  that  many  insects — bees, 
ants,  termites  (white  ants) — show  a  greater 
power  of  association  than  some  of  the  higher 
vertebrates.  Many  lines  of  living  animals 
have  failed  in  the  course  of  the  geologic  ages 
—one  reason  among  others  being  the  lack  of 
associative  ability.  Herein  doubtless  lies  the 
chief  ground  of  man's  persistence  through 
all  sorts  of  terrestrial  changes.  His  evolu- 
tion is  a  slender  thread  running  through 
many  thousands  of  different  organic  shapes, 
with  an  ever-rising  might  of  association,  till 
now  his  body  seems  to  have  reached  its  limit 
of  cellular  formation.  That  is,  his  shape 
does  not  essentially  change,  while  evolution 
has  gone  over  into  his  mind,  which  is  in  the 
very  hey-day  of  Its  progress.  His  body  ap- 
pears now  static,  but  his  soul  is  certainly 
dynamic.  And  the  line  on  which  his  physical 
evolution  seems  to  be  moving  is  institutional 
association  (as  already  set  forth  in  the  Intro- 
duction, pp.  50-52). 

Man  is  not  the  largest  animal  with  the 


CYTOLOGY.  159 

greatest  number  of  cells — he  is  far  surpassed 
by  the  whale  and  the  elephant.  Still  in  him 
the  cellular  structure  is  most  highly  organ- 
ized, with  greatest  diversity  and  complexity. 
Nor  is  he  the  longest-lived  of  living  exist- 
ence— there  are  trees,  animals  and  birds 
which  get  older.  Still  through  creating  insti- 
tutions his  individual  Psyche  remains  longer 
in  evidence  upon  our  earth  than  any  merely 
physical  shape  of  vital  Nature.  Julius  Caesar 
is  yet  among  us,  not  to  speak  of  Christ.  From 
this  point  of  view  man  wins  an  institutional 
immortality  which  is  no  longer  dependent  on 
his  cell-life. 

The  analogy  of  cellular  association  to 
human  association  is  noteworthy.  The 
movement  of  society  in  History  shows  man's 
mind  associative  as  well  as  his  body.  Human 
souls  associate  and  form  bodies  (institu- 
tional, as  a  state,  or  a  church,  or  even  a  club), 
as  well  as  human  cells.  We  think  of  the  lit- 
tle Greek  City-States  as  the  starting  point 
of  European  political  association,  constitut- 
ing rather  an  aggregate  of  separate  cells, 
while  the  Eoman  City-State  unites  them  and 
brings  them  (often  by  force)  into  one  organ- 
ism. Still  we  must  not  construe  the  State 
or  other  institutions  as  biological,  as  some 
philosophers  are  inclined  to  do.  Both  biology 
and  political  science  are  manifestations  of 


160  THE    BIOCOSM08— CELLULAR. 

the  Psyche,  and  are  to  get  their  ultimate 
order  from  Psychology,  as  the  universal 
science. 

It  should  be  added  here  that  there  are 
scientists  who  find  in  the  human  body  numer- 
ous rudimentary  organs  which  await  their  full 
development.  From  this  point  of  view  man's 
organism  has  not  yet  completely  evolved 
itself,  or  realized  its  possibilities.  This  is 
the  opinion  of  the  eminent  anatomist  Gegen- 
baur.  The  so-called  transcended  parts,  once 
useful  but  now  useless  and  even  dangerous 
(like  the  os  cocci/ gis)  are  far  outstripped  by 
the  unevolved  parts,  which  are  yet  to  con- 
stitute the  perfect  Human  Form.  This 
prophecy,  however,  seems  not  at  present  to 
be  marching  toward  fulfilment. 

But  the  Cellular  Biocosmos  falls  into  con- 
flict with  itself,  the  organism  in  its  associated 
cell-life  has  its  strife  and  war,  and  hence  suf- 
fers (Pathology,  literally  the  science  of  suf- 
fering). Cells  indeed  become  pathogenic,  to 
use  the  scientific  term.  Whereof  a  little  may 
now  be  said. 

II.     PATHOLOGY. 

The  cell  has  its  negative  side,  its  separative 
'destructive  phase,  the  conception  of  which 
has  in  recent  times  given  an  entirely  new 
turn  to  the  science  of  medicine,  or  better,  the 


PATHOLOGY. 


science  of  disease  (sometimes  called  Nosol- 
ogy as  well  as  Pathology).  The  cell  becomes 
infected  in  hundreds  of  ways;  indeed  the 
primary  basic  infection  of  the  organism  must 
lie  in  it  as  the  ultimate  organic  unit.  The 
bite  of  a  certain  kind  of  mosquito  introduces 
into  the  cellular  tissue  of  the  body  a  hostile 
cell  or  microbe  which  produces  the  scourge 
known  as  yellow  fever.  The  ordinary  organic 
cells  are  totally  unable  to  resist  the  incursions 
of  this  terrible  foe,  who  rapidly  sweeps  to  the 
center  of  life.  Unless  he  be  met  by  a  new 
power  introduced  from  the  outside,  he*  will 
soon  have  possession.  But  first  he  must  be 
distinctly  separated  and  recognized  before  he 
can  be  successfully  attacked;  or  the  bacillus 
must  be  found,  as  the  books  say.  In  like  man- 
ner there  is  a  cholera  bacillus,  a  consumption 
bacillus,  etc.  It  has  always  been  regarded 
as  a  great  scientific  event  when  the  investi- 
gator has  fully  isolated  and  described  one 
of  these  microscopic  enemies  of  life.  Still 
greater  has  been  the  jubilation  when  the  scien- 
tist has  found  some  counter  agent  (serum, 
anti-toxin,  anti-septic,  etc.),  which  will  single 
out  the  intruder  and  slay  him  without  per- 
manent injury  to  the  other  cells  of  the  organ- 
ism. The  most  famous  name  in  this  field  is 
doubtless  that  of  Louis  Pasteur,  who  has 
found  the  antidote  for  the  bite  of  the  mad 


162  THE    BIOC08M08— CELLULAR. 

dog,  of  which  the  bacillus,  it  is  declared,  has 
never  been  isolated.     Still  this  terrible  un- 
seen antagonist  is  met  and  conquered.     On 
the  other  hand,  the  consumption  bacillus  has 
been  isolated  and  is  well  known;   still  the 
special  antidote,  the  personal  foe  we  may  call 
him,  seems  not  yet  to  have  come  to  the  front. 
Thus  a  large  part  of  human  suffering  is  due 
to  what  may  be  called  a  cell-war,  which  has 
its  analogy  to  man-war,  though  the  latter  in- 
volves the  entire  organism,  indeed  whole  peo- 
ples.   The  cell  gets  to  fighting  with  the  cell, 
as  nation  with  nation,  or  race  with  race.    The 
science  of  ailment   (Pathology)  has  largely 
reached  down  to  the  cell  as  the  primordial 
seat  of  bodily  malady,  which  may  affect  the 
whole  sweep  of  cellular  life — pre-cellular,  uni- 
cellular   and    multi-cellular    as    associated. 
That  is,  the  single  cell  may  become  diseased, 
then  the  association  of  cells  may  be  broken 
up  by  numerous  causes;  doubtless,  too,  the 
elemental  cell-stuff  (Protobioticon)   can  get 
disordered,  though  this  realm  reaches  as  yet 
beyond  the  microscope.    Possibly  the  source 
of  rabies,  which  has  never  been  seen,  though 
the  malady  yields  to  treatment,  lies  back  in 
the  source  of  cell-life  itself,  in  the  very  foun- 
tain of  cellular  individuation.    Here  rises  to 
view  a  great  future  field  for  the  investigator 
who  may  yet  through  his  science  discover  the 


PATHOLOGY. 


unseen  in  the  Little  World  and  deal  with  it, 
as  Leverrier  through  his  mathematics  dis- 
covered the  unseen  planet  in  the  Large  World 
and  designated  its  locality. 

Accordingly  Biology  in  its  true  conception 
as  the  Science  of  Life  must  include  its  own 
negative,  or  Life  destroying  Life.  The  bacil- 
lus is  a  living  thing,  yet  its  function  is  to 
assail  a  living  thing.  Indeed  one  of  the  most 
striking  manifestations  of  Life  as  whole  is 
its  bent  toward  annihilating  Life,  that  is, 
itself.  Micro-organisms  prey  on  micro- 
organisms, as  well  as  on  macro-organ- 
isms, as  the  latter  prey  on  one  another. 
Man's  food  is  the  living  thing,  vegetal  or  ani- 
mal; he  lives  by  swallowing  Life  daily.  Pie 
cannot  take  the  Inorganic  for  his  diet;  the 
plant  alone  can  do  that.  The  invisible  cell- 
war  thus  rises  to  an  ever-present  visible  life- 
war,  to  which  there  is  no  truce.  Life  in  its 
totality  has  this  deeply  negative  strand  ;  yea 
it  is  self-negative,  perpetually  it  undoes  itself. 
Yet  the  other  side  must  be  noted:  through 
this  self-undoing,  it  is  always  being  re-born. 
Strangely  Life  lives  off  itself  in  a  large  meas- 
ure; Life  as  whole,  the  Earth-Life,  endures 
through  death.  Fiercely  destructive,  yea  self- 
destructive,  it  destroys  its  own  destruction. 
This  is  the  point  where  we  may  see  the  dialec- 
tic of  Life  ;  inherently  negative  it  is  indeed  ; 


164  THE    B10COSMOS— CELLULAR. 

yet  in  spite  of  this,  or  rather  through  this, 
it  negates  its  own  negativity — an4  so  lives 
on.  In  the  Cellular  Biocosmos  we  are  ac- 
cordingly to  behold  not  only  the  positive  cell 
in  its  origin,  structure  and  association 
(Cytology),  but  also  the  negative  cell  which 
separates  from  the  immediate  positive  cell- 
life,  and  assails  the  same  both  as  individual 
and  as  associated.  This  is  hence  the  second 
or  separative  stage  of  the  Cellular  Biocos- 
mos, which  in  its  separated  forms  is  to  suf- 
fer its  own  negation  through  disaster,  dis- 
ease and  death  (the  sphere  of  Pathology). 
A  world  individuated  is  necessarily  a  world  of 
suffering — of  assault  from  without  and  of  ail- 
ment from  within.  Yet  just  this  suffering 
we  are  to  see~  as  part  of  organized  Life  in  its 
totality. 

We  may  well  ask:  What  is  it  propelling 
Life  in  this  process?  Evidently  the  Psyche 
again,  which  is  just  this  driving  force  in  Life, 
and  which  is  seeking  to  evolve  the  same  into 
correspondence-  with  itself.  For  it  is  the 
Psyche  which  has  purely  and  internally  the 
power  of  self-division  and  self-return,  and 
which  is  unfolding  the  Physis  toward  the 
same  end.  Now  in  the  living  cell  this  self- 
division  takes  place  likewise,  but  externally, 
and  so  produces  another  living  cell  outside 
of  itself,  which  continues  the  same  act  of  self- 


HYGIOLOGY. 


division  or  of  individuation.  That  is,  there  is 
no  inner  self-return  out  of  this  separation  of 
Life  ;  the  individual  cell  halves  itself,  and  the 
second  half  (as  it  may  be  called)  becomes  a 
new  individual  external  to  the  first,  not  re- 
turning to  it  and  forming  one  inner  process 
in  one  individuality.  That  would  indeed  be 
not  Life,  but  Ego  or  Self-consciousness  to- 
ward which  Life  is  moving,  and  which  is  its 
secret  motive  energy.  Just  now  it  manifests 
itself  in  the  self-division  of  the  living  cell,  but 
the  divided  part  is  not  taken  back  into  its 
source  but  remains  another  individual  cell, 
which  in  its  turn  reproduces  itself  in  like 
manner.  The  first  cell,  however,  having  given 
away  its  half-life,  never  fully  recovers  its 
primal  energy,  though  it  may  still  throw  off 
other  individuals.  Gradually  it  loses  its  re- 
productive power,  and  then  its  vital  activity  ; 
the  individual  cell  dies,  having  exhausted  its 
original  store  of  energy.  Death  is  the  mani- 
festation of  Life's  negative;  the  mortality  of 
the  cell  indicates  that  it  cannot  restore  itself 
after  its  own  self-division,  but  is  giving  up 
Life  through  reproducing  Life  in  its  cellular 
progeny.  Thus  cell-life  has  its  analogy  to 
the  so-called  infinite  division  of  matter, 
which  is  also  a  search  for  completing  the 
process  of  Nature's  separation  by  getting 
back  to  the  source,  though  matter  as  such  is 


THE    BIOCOSM08—  CELLULAR. 


lifeless,  non-cellular.  The  unit  of  the  Biocos- 
mos  is  not,  therefore,  an  atom  or  molecule, 
but  a  cell  with  its  minute  vital  process.  This 
cell,  however,  as  distinct  from  the  atom  has 
reached  the  point  at  which  it  can  divide  itself, 
and  so  self  -genesis  enters  with  Life.  Still  let 
us  remember,  that  the  cell  persists  not,  but 
dies  at  last  through  its  own  inner  division 
which  it  cannot  control  but  which  ultimately 
controls  it  as  a  thing  of  Nature.  The  inher- 
ent dialectic  of  its  separation  is  that  it  must 
finally  separate  from  itself,  and  perish. 

Now  this  negative  of  Life,  or  Death,  be- 
longs to  the  great  totality,  is  a  phase  or  stage 
thereof.  The  living  individual  through  his 
self-negative  act  perpetuates  himself  in  an- 
other individual.  Life  continues  through  its 
own  cessation.  So  the  law  runs  that  still  in 
Nature,  Death  is  properly  the  death  of  Death, 
the  negation  of  the  negative,  the  separation 
from  separation.  The  highest  attainment  of 
Nature  is  Life,  the  Death  of  Life  must  be 
accordingly  the  conclusion  of  Nature,  which 
as  a  whole  is  the  stage  of  separation  in  the 
Universe. 

If,  therefore,  we  wish  to  reach  back  to  the 
primal  force  which  drives  the  cell  to  its  repro- 
ductive division  (which  is  such  a-  marvel  to 
the  biologist),  we  cannot  stop  till  we  come 
to  the  conception  of  the  universe  as  psychical 


PATHOLOGY.  167 

(the  Pampsychosis)  which  has  the  original 
self-division  whose  manifestation  is  Nature. 
So  it  comes  that  all  Nature  is  divisive,  and 
self-divisive,  quite  to  infinity,  but  she  has  no 
complete  self-return,  though  this  is  what  she 
is  seeking,  yea  what  she  is  manifesting  ex- 
ternally. But  when  Nature  overcomes  her 
self-division  completely,  that  is  just  her  end, 
she  has  ceased  to  be,  having  transcended  her 
original  and  pervasive  endowment.  The 
death  of  the  living  individual  is,  universally 
considered,  the  death  of  all  individuation  and 
separation  as  such,  the  mortality  of  all  mor- 
tality, or  the  mortal  served  up  to  itself  dia- 
lectically.  Here  we  may  glimpse,  as  the  posi- 
tive result  of  the  foregoing  process,  immor- 
tality, which  belongs  not  to  Nature  properly, 
being  just  her  negation. 

Pathology,  the  science  of  disease,  may  in 
its  widest  sense  be  regarded  as  the  science  of 
the  negative  Biocosmos,  which  has  indeed  va- 
rious stages.  It  has  to  be  introduced  with 
the  cell  which  in  many  ways  may  become  the 
source  of  disease,  this  being  in  itself  a  new 
separation  from  the  normal  process  of  the 
organism  (indicated  in  the  particle  dis).  In- 
deed all  Nature  as  separative  is  subject  to 
disease  inherently,  which  is  only  a  wrong  sort 
of  separation — a  kind  of  dialectic  in  which 
separation  turns  against  itself.  The  tumor  is 


163  THE    BIOCOSMOS— CELLULAR. 

a  mass  of  cells  which,  still  in  the  body,  have 
declared  their  independence  of  the  body. 
This  excrescence,  as  it  is  called,  may  be  quite 
indifferent  to  the  rest  of  the  organism,  and 
so  not  very  harmful ;  but  in  the  cancer  we  see 
an  actively  destructive  cellular  mass,  which 
produces  a  virulent  cell-war.  Each  battling 
side  is  an  organism  of  cells  like  two  armies, 
which  grapple  as  organized.  Yet  each  cell 
has  its  principle,  or  is  infected,  we  say;  this 
is  usually  the  source  of  the  whole  trouble. 

At  this  point  rises  the  very  important  ques- 
tion of  the  place  and  influence  of  the  Psyche 
in  Pathology.  For  disease  can  be  dominant- 
]y  psychical  as  well  as  physical;  indeed  it  is 
more  or  less  of  both.  As  the  living  cell  and 
every  organism  are  composed  of  the  two  ele- 
ments— Physis  and  Psyche — so  the  negative 
principle  starting  in  the  one  involves  the 
other.  This  fact  may  well  be  deemed  the 
basic  one  of  all  pathological  treatment  which 
just  now  is  in  the  bitterest  sort  of  strife  be- 
tween its  two  elemental  factors,  -the  psychical 
and  the  physical.  The  science  of  disease 
should  include  both.  Pathology  must  at  the 
start  seek  to  give  some  classification  of  the 
great  chaotic  throng  of  human  ills.  We  shall 
run  our  very  brief  survey  so  as  to  include 
the  negative  phases  of  both  Physis  and 
Psyche. 


PATHOLOGY, 


I.  Physical:  there  can  be  an  external  de- 
struction of  the  cell,  organ  and  organism. 
Tlie  ill  starts  from  without  ;  the  environment 
crushes  in,  such  as  heat,  cold,  accident.    But 
the  physical  must  pass  into  the  following: 

II.  Physio-psychical:    here    the    two    ele- 
ments of  the  cell  have  become  mutually  re- 
pellent, and  no  longer  co-operative.     Very 
often  a  foreign  cell  enters,  a  bacillus,  and 
produces  the  dissociation  or  disease.    Jndeed 
this  is  the  chief  field  of  disease  which  fluc- 
tuates variously  between  the  two  sides,  and 
can  become  wholly  psychical.     The  ill  of  a 
part  attacks  the  Psyche  who  is  president  of 
the  whole  organism,  which  is,  therefore,  sick, 
inharmonious  with  itself.    Half  the  diseases 
are  imaginary,  but  not  the  less  real  for  that. 

III.  Psychical:  the  supreme  psychical  ill 
taken  by  itself  is  insanity,  which  has  many 
forms  and  gradations. 

It  need  hardly  be  repeated  that  all  these 
classes  play  into  one  another;  Physis  and 
Psyche  of  the  living  organism  are  in  direct 
unity,  and  the  affection  of  the  one  cannot  help 
influencing  the  other.  Still  the  preceding 
divisions  hold  good,  indicating  the  chief  lo- 
cality or  stress  of  the  ailment.  Though  only 
a  limb  be  injured,  the  man  is  sick  all  over; 
his  entire  body  is  disordered  through  the  lit- 
tle fragment  of  it.  The  stone  can  hardly  be 


170  THE    BIOCOSMOS— CELLULAR. 

called  sick,  though  it  be  broken  to  pieces ;  each 
piece  remains  what  the  whole  is.  But  a  sev- 
ered limb  is  different,  it  lives  only  through 
the  entire  organism,  in  whose  process  it 
shares.  It  is  the  prerogative  of  the  living 
thing  to  be  able  to  get  sick ;  man,  as  the  high- 
est of  life,  can  become  sicker  than  any  other 
animal,  and  disease  can  hit  him  in  more  spots. 
Still  he  is  gifted  with  greater  power  of  meet- 
ing malady  through  his  intelligence.  In  fact, 
man  has  drilled  a  valiant  army  of  disease- 
fighters,  verily  a  vast  standing  army  with 
many  branches  of  service. 

Sickness,  accordingly,  arises  when  a  part 
or  a  member  of  the  living  organism  does  not 
perform  its  function  in  the  whole  through 
some  collapse  or  injury,  or  when  it  sets  up 
its  own  active  process  against  that  of  the 
total  body,  which  then  suffers,  becomes  path- 
ological or  the  subject  of  Pathology.  This 
we  may  divide  into  three  main  branches 
which  have  been  above  indicated  in  general : 
Physiopathy  (affection  of  the  Physis) ; 
Psycho-physiopathy  (the  vast  but  indefinite 
middle  division,  which  just  at  present  is  hav- 
the  chief  stress);  Psychopathy  (affection  of 
the  Psyche,  the  realm  specially  of  mental  dis- 
order). 

But  now  follows  the  problem  of  overcoming 
this  sphere  of  separation,  of  negating  this 


HYGIOLOGY. 


negation  of  Life,  whose  ultimate  unit,  the  in- 
tegral cell,  again  becomes  the  center.  If  there 
are  pathogenic  cells  (disease-creating),  so 
there  are  also  hygiogenic  cells  (health-creat- 
ing) ;  through  the  latter  the  Cellular  Biocos- 
mos  in  a  special  science  (which  we  here  call 
Hygiology)  returns  out  of  its  stage  of  inner 
conflict  and  disease. 

III.     HYGIOLOGY. 

A  science  of  Health  must  be  the  counter- 
part to  a  science  of  Disease,  though  closely 
connected  in  the  field  of  medicine.  How  can 
the  negative  element  of  the  living  cell  and 
organism  be  met  and  mastered  is  the  ques- 
tion of  Hygienics  or  Hygiology. 

This  is  a  part  of  Biology  as  the  science  of 
Life.  The  seat  of  all  vitality  being  primar- 
ily in  the  cell,  this  must  be  restored  if  affect- 
ed. Hygiology  (Hygienics)  seek  to  restore 
the  cell,  individual  and  associated,  to  its  orig- 
inal activity,  which  has  been  interrupted. 
So  we  may  deem  it  a  return  to  Cytology  in  its 
scientific  scope  and  the  third  stage  of  the 
Cellular  Biocosmos. 

Here  we  observe  again  an  undoing  of  the 
separative  principle,  an  attack  on  the  cell 
foe  with  release  of  the  cell,  which,  however, 
must  still  have  the  vital  power  to  resume  its 
normal  process.  The  cell  foe  may  be  slain 


172  THE    BIOCOSMOS— CELLULAR. 

by  the  antidote,  but  if  the  cell  too  be  slain 
or  mortally  wounded,  there  is  no  restoration. 
Or  the  poison  (toxin)  of  the  cell-foe  may 
be  rendered  innocuous  by  a  neutralizing  agent 
known  as  anti-toxin.  Here  lies  at  present 
the  great  field  of  the  physician  who  by  edu- 
cation and  habit  is  inclined  to  put  his  chief 
stress  upon  Physis. 

But  the  striking  fact  at  the  present  time 
in  the  development  of  the  Healing  Art  is  that 
the  psychician  (so  we  call  him  for  the  con- 
trast) has  arisen  who  puts  his  chief  stress 
upon  Psyche,  and  proposes  to  cure  human 
ills  in  that  way.  The  result  is  a  feud  which 
does  not- lack  signs  of  bitterness.  But  the 
surprising  thing  is  the  strong  popular  sup- 
port which  is  given  to  the  psychician  who 
practices  psychical  therapy,  which,  by  the 
way,  has  many  forms  and  names.  On  the 
whole  he  is  regarded  as  irregular  by  the  phy- 
sician who  deems  himself  regular,  and  usual- 
ly denounces  his  psychical  rival  as  a  quack 
and  seeks  to  outlaw  him.  And  the  truth  will 
have  to  be  confessed  about  both  sides:  too 
often  is  the  psychician  an  ignorant  charlatan, 
and  on  the  other  hand  the  physician  a  shal- 
low if  learned  empiric.  At  the  same  time 
it  is  not  hard  to  find  men  of  high  character 
in  both  parties.  But  this  cannot  obscure  the 
important  fact  that  the  Healing  Art  (which 


HYGIOLOGY.  173 

ought  to  make  us  whole)  is  today  rent  in  the 
middle  from  top  to  bottom  along  the  line  of 
the  elemental  constituents  of  Nature  her- 
self, namely  Physis  and  Psyche,  which  ought 
to  be  joined  in  co-operation  for  health.  Such, 
we  have  to  think,  is  the  deep  dualism  in  the 
curative  science  of  the  present  time,  which 
certainly  ought  to  set  about  curing  itself 
first  of  all.  For  it  surely  has  a  lesion  (or  sep- 
aration) within  itself  greater  than  that  of 
any  individual  sufferer.  So  the  cry  goes  up : 
Where  is  the  Newton  of  medicine  who  will 
unify  its  two  warring  sides  and  make  a  new 
synthesis  of  the  science  of  Health?  For  it 
is  sicker  than  any  of  its  human  patients,  and 
needs  the  doctor  of  doctors,  the  universal 
doctor  who  is  able  to  prescribe  the  right  med- 
icine to  medicine  itself. 

Another  peculiar  fact  about  the  present 
dualism  in  therapeutics  is  that  it  reaches 
over  into  theology.  The  act  of  healing  is 
made  a  religious  act,  and  its  devotees  have 
organized  even  new  churches.  This  has 
roused  the  old  church  with  its  priesthood  to 
combat,  and  it  is  noticeable  that  those  two 
ancient  enemies,  the  soul-curer  and  the  body- 
curer  are  joining  in  a  common  crusade 
against  this  new  foe.  (Quite  a  little  litera- 
ture already  in  this  line.)  To  take  an  ex- 
ample, Mrs.  Eddy,  whatever  else  she  may 


174  THE    BIOC08MOS— CELLULAR. 

be,  Is  a  furiously  destructive  criticism  of  the 
two  doctors,  the  one  of  medicine,  the  other 
of  divinity,  from  the  side  of  the  Psyche.  De- 
structive, we  say,  in  the  most  effective  and 
sensitive  manner,  for  she  has  taken  away 
many  followers  of  both,  and  hence  is 
destroying  their  vocation,  and  with  it 
their  livelihood.  That  is  certainly  the 
most  penetrating  sort  of  criticism,  not  of 
words  alone  but  likewise  of  deeds.  So  the 
two  sides  stand  in  continual  battle-line 
awaiting  perchance  the  coming  peace-maker 
and  healer,  who  will  unite  both  in  a  new 
wholeness  of  health.  Certain  dawn-signs  of 
him  may  already  be  discerned  by  the  eye  of 
hope. 

But  here  we  must  quit  this  field  of  Hygi- 
ology  and  with  it  the  entire  realm  of  the  Cel- 
lular Diacosmos  which  has  gone  its  round,  as 
we  conceive  it,  and  which  leaves  us  with  a 
return  to  the  cellular  structure  as  organized. 
The  separative  hostile  cell-life  is  conceived  to 
be  overcome,  and  its  association  is  now  to  be 
regarded  as  it  proceeds  to  evolve  its  distinct 
typical  forms  of  Life — forms  of  associated 
cell-life  which  also  have  their  own  divisions 
and  their  process.  So  we  are  brought  to  con- 
sider the  second  chief  stage  of  the  Biocosmos, 
which  is  designated,  on  account  of  its  thor- 
ough-going separative  character,  as  the  Par- 


HYGIOLOGY. 


ticularized  Biocosmos,  the  association  of  cells 
into  their  particular  forms. 

Retrospect.  Before  passing  on,  we  may 
take  a  glance  back  at  the  Cellular  Biocosmos, 
and  trace  some  of  its  relations  to  the  Dia- 
cosmos,  especially  in  the  matter  of  Chemism, 
which  is  the  final  diacosimcal  stage  (see  Cos- 
mos and  Diacosmos,  p.  543),  and  is  just  an- 
tecedent to  Life,  or  the  Biocosmos.  The 
result  is  that  not  a  few  scientists  have  re- 
solved the  vital  process  into  a  chemical  one, 
which  it  is,  but  also  something  distinctively 
more.  Chemism  does  not  control  Life,  on  the 
contrary  Life  controls  Chemism  to  its  end. 
This  point  we  may  reflect  upon  a  little. 

The  chemical  process  presupposes  a  chem- 
ical product  which  it  decomposes  into  its  con- 
stituents ;  thus  it  tears  to  pieces  its  own  pre- 
vious work.  On  the  other  hand  it  recomposes 
these  constituents,  making  them  perchance 
into  new  compounds,  which  again  it  assails 
and  separates.  Chemism  is,  therefore,  al- 
ways attacking  Chemism  in  its  own  product, 
which  it  will  undo,  and  so  undo  itself.  Yet,  it 
will  put  together  in  another  way  what  it  has 
divided.  So  Chemism  has  a  negative  and  a 
positive  action,  which  fall  apart  while  each 
is  ever  counteracting  the  other;  each  seems 
to  be  pursuing  the  other  without  overtaking 
it.  The  compound  is  decomposed  into  its 


176  THE    BIOCOSM08— CELLULAR. 

component  parts,  which  are  recomposed 
afresh,  to  be  decomposed  still  again.  Thus 
the  chemical  pursuit  is  kept  up  through  all 
matter — neither  side  ever  quite  reaching  the 
other.  Decomposition  negates  composition, 
and  is  in  turn  negated  by  recomposition,  one 
after  the  other  in  endless  sequence  racing 
through  all  earth's  substances  and  doubtless 
through  the  entire  Cosmos. 

Now  the  point  which  we  wish  to  empha- 
size is  that  these  two  mutually  fleeing  and 
mutually  pursuing  sides  of  Chemisin  overtake 
each  other  and  unite  in  the  process  of  Life 
or  of  the  living  thing.  The  organism  is  per- 
petually decomposing  and  recomposing  in 
the  same  product.  Your  body  as  a  given  com- 
pound never  ceases  while  Life  lasts,  to  de- 
compose its  food,  and  to  recompose  the  same 
into  its  tissues  and  organs,  which  are  the 
means  as  well  as  the  result  of  the  total  chem- 
ical process.  The  stomach  decomposes  what 
in  the  end  keeps  recomposing  it,  and  gives 
to  it  the  power  of  decomposition.  From  the 
chemical  point  of  view  cause  and  effect, 
means  and  end,  come  to  unity  in  the  living 
object,  which  separates  what  it  puts  together 
for  the  purpose  of  such  separation.  Under 
this  aspect  we  may  call  Life  organized  an 
end  unto  itself  within  itself,  or  briefly  self- 
end. 


HY010LOGY.  177 

Indeed  the  animal  body  is  full  of  chemical 
processes  but  always  under  command.  The 
air  we  breathe  oxydizes  the  venous  blood, 
which  is  thereby  chemically  changed,  so  that 
we  may  breathe.  That  is,  our  breathing  ap- 
paratus through  Chemism  creates  and  keeps 
re-creating  itself.  What  our  muscular  sys- 
tem does  is  just  what  enables  it  to  do;  the 
power  which  goes  out  brings  itself  back.  The 
organism  is  indeed  the  product  of  Chemism, 
but  just  this  product  produces  in  turn  Chem- 
ism, which  by  itself  has  no  such  return.  Oth- 
erwise stated,  the  producing  and  the  produced 
in  Chemism  are  separated  and  end  in  separ- 
ation, while  in  Life  they  are  in  one  and  form 
one  process.  Decomposition  and  recomposi- 
tion  are  cut  in  two  by  the  chemical  process, 
and  are  held  asunder,  while  in  the  vital  pro- 
cess, the  produced  is  the  producing,  the  de- 
composed is  recomposed  into  what  decomp- 
poses. 

Still  we  are  not  to  forget  that  Chemism 
is  the  potentiality  of  Life,  the  latter 's  two 
sides  shown  as  separate  just  before  they  are 
united  or  rather  just  for  the  purpose  of  be- 
ing united  in  their  higher  synthesis.  The 
chemical  process  seems  ever  ready  to  pitch 
over  into  Life,  but  does  not,  cannot,  without 
ceasing  to  be  itself.  Still  we  may  mark  its 
striving  in  that  direction,  it  longs  to  over- 


178  TSE    BIOCOSM08— CELLULAR. 

come  its  dualism  in  the  unity  of  Life.  Chem- 
ism, as  already  remarked,  is  ever  negative  to 
itself,  it  never  fails  to  assail  what  it  has  pro- 
duced as  if  deeply  dissatisfied  with  itself. 
Still  it  cannot  overcome  and  control  its  own 
negation,  and  so  it  calls  for  Life  to  complete 
its  insufficiency.  For  it  is  Life  which  in  the 
living  body  perpetually  remakes  the  product 
which  it  is  unmaking.  Thus  we  may  conceive 
Life  as  a  chemical  process  self-reproducing 
in  its  production  and  hence  perennial. 

Next  we  may  ask  where  this  movement  out 
of  Chemism  into  Life  takes  place.  Its  arena 
must  be  the  cell  in  some  form,  as  the  ultimate 
vital  unit.  This  brings  us  back  to  that  world 
not  yet  unveiled,  which  we  have  already 
named  the  Pre-cellular  Biocosmos.  The  great 
transition  from  Unlife  to  Life  moves  into  the 
evolving  the  cell  perchance  from  the  atom  of 
Chemism.  Of  course  such  a  view  is  as  yet 
hypothetical;  it  is  not  based  on  any  known 
chemical  reaction  or  on  what  may  be  seen 
under  the  microscope.  Still  we  may  well  con- 
ceive the  cell  be'coming  gradually  the  mistress 
of  the  atom,  and  directing  it  to  her  end  which 
is  that  of  Life.  The  theory  of  Chemism  de- 
clares that  the  cell  is  composed  of  chemical 
atoms,  which  must  have  been  marshaled  by 
that  living  cellular  energy  already  designated 
as  Psyche,  who  appears  at  just  such  con- 


HYGIOLOGY. 


junctures,  with  her  process  self  -dividing  (as 
in  Chemism)  and  self  -returning  (as  in  Life.) 
Chemism  must  be  regarded  as  the  last  and 
highest  point  of  Unlif  e  before  passing  into 
Life,  the  culmination  of  the  Inorganic  on  its 
way  to  the  Organic,  verily  the  final  phase  of 
the  Diacosmos,  the  deepest  separative  stage 
of  Nature  herself  ere  she  develops  into  her 
self-returning  vital  act.  Life  is  a  rounded 
and  complete  chemical  process,  which  is  al- 
ways disintegrating  its  product  (as  blood, 
muscle,  organ),  yet  at  the  same  time  is  al- 
ways re-integrating  what  it  disintegrates, 
ever  building  anew  the  body  which  it  is  tear- 
ing down.  Thus  Life  is  the  secret  agent 
which  turns  Chemism  against  Chemism  and. 
makes  the  same  undo  its  undoing,  or  negate 
its  negative  —  which  process  thus  becomes  the 
positive  and  vital.  It  is  no  wonder  that  the 
negative  Eighteenth  Century  developed 
Chemistry,  first  really  elevating  it  into  a 
science,  which  was  also  the  favorite  intellec- 
tual pursuit  of  so  many  French  revolution- 
ists —  the  Spirit  of  Man  in  one  of  its  epochal 
phases  being  sympathetic  with  the  like  Spirit 
of  Nature.  Here  again  we  should  note  the 
characteristic  fact  that  Life  is  a  chemical  re- 
turn to  its  start,  that  Chemism  therein  is 
cycled  around  upon  itself,  which  act  it  can- 
not perform  alone;  Chemism  cannot  round 


THE    BIOCOSM08—  CELLULAR. 


out  its  own  process,  but  remains  deeply  dual 
and  separative.  On  the  other  hand  Life,  even 
in  its  chemical  aspect  is  an  ever  self-return- 
ing process,  overcoming  not  only  the  dualism 
of  Chemism,  but  of  the  whole  Diacosmos,  as 
we  have  already  seen. 

Still,  lest  Life  may  become  too  proud  over 
its  superiority,  we  have  to  emphasize  again 
its  smallness,  its  relatively  tiny  volume.  But 
Chemism  reaches  out  to  the  extent  of  the 
cosmical  universe,  it  is  taking  place  in  the 
sun  and  stars,  which  are  burning  to  the  point 
of  luminosity  —  combustion  being  a  chemical 
process"  And  in  the  interstellar  spaces  no- 
body can  tell  how  much  chemistry  is  going 
on,  keeping  invisible  and  perchance  awaiting 
other  ways  of  detection  besides  that  of  light. 
The  spectroscope  is  essentially  a  chemical  in- 
strument, and  has  revealed  to  us  the  stellar 
fires  as  the  blazes  of  innumerable  cosmical 
smithies  which  are  forging  the  chemical  ele- 
ments, hydrogen  and  the  rest.  Thus  Chem- 
ism has  its  laboratories  strewn  throughout 
the  physical  universe. 

And  yet  we  have  to  think  that  the  chemical 
act  has  its  purposive  end  in  the  vital  process, 
small  as  tMs  is.  The  unbounded  Cosmos  is 
to  be  strained  through  a  point,  is  to  be  indi- 
viduated that  it  reach  its  destiny  and  get 
alive,  that  it  become  quick  and  stay  no  longer 


HYGIOLOGY.  181 

wholly  dead.  So  Chemism  we  see  undoing  it- 
self into  and  through  Life,  its  immediate 
goal.  Still  we  have  to  ask  ourselves :  Is  this 
colossal  factory  of  the  total  Cosmos  built 
up  just  to  produce  a  little  speck  of  Life  on 
our  Earth-ball?  Probably  the  same  product 
exists  elsewhere,  though  we  have  not  yet 
found  it.  Still  further,  science  declares  that 
the  small  speck  of  Life,  is  destined  to  be 
snuffed  out,  be  it  the  cell  or  your  body,  or  the 
Earth's  total  organism.  If  that  be  so,  Life 
will  relapse  into  Chemism,  which  will  again 
be  the  highest  stage  of  Nature's  Evolution; 
and  the  supreme  transformation  of  the  Cos- 
mos of  Matter  and  Motion  through  the  Dia- 
cosmos  of  Heat,  Light  and  Chemism  into  the 
Biocosmos  of  living  shapes  will  have  come  to 
an  end.  Such  has  been  the  recent  scientific 
view  held  up  before  us  on  many  sides,  and 
has  to  be  considered  not  only  in  its  own  right, 
but  as  an  image  of  the  spirit  of  science,  and 
also  as  a  deep-seated  strain  of  the  present 
age.  Still  we  have  here  to  add  a  more  recent 
fact:  the  discovery  of  radium,  which  seems 
(though  its  character  is  by  no  means  fully 
unfolded  as  yet)  a  kind  of  universal  chemical 
element,  wliich  is  self-radiative  or  self-sep- 
arative, but  has  the  power  of  recovering  the 
energy  which  it  has  given  out.  Thus  it  has 
a  speck  of  the  total  chemical  process  within 


182  THE    BIOCOSMOS— CELLULAR. 

itself  and  suggests  life — a  piece  of  matter 
decomposing  and  recomposing  itself.  But 
there  is  an  interval  of  time  between  these 
two  acts,  and  so  radium,  taken  piecemeal, 
drops  back  to,  or  rather  stays  in  Chemism. 
But  if  the  sun  be  largely  composed  of  radium, 
the  self-emanating  and  the  self-restoring  ele- 
ment, our  central  luminary  would  appear  to 
be  in  no  danger  of  extinction  or  even  of  dimi- 
nution, for  while  some  parts  are  indeed 
spending,  others  are  recovering,  so  that  the 
loss  may  be  always  balanced  by  the  gain. 
Thus  within  the  past  few  years  radium  has 
given  new  hope  to  the  universe,  and  specially 
to  our  own  solar  system,  and  much  more  spe- 
cially to  our  little  Biocosmos  which  is  now 
exulting  in  the  prospect  of  an  eternal  lease 
of  Life,  in  contrast  with  its  former  brief  lot 
of  a  hundred  millions  of  years  (according  to 
the  Last  Judgment  of  famous  geologists). 
Still  our  Earth-life  may  cease,  while  the  Bio- 
cosmos  perchance  lives  on,  not  being  depend- 
ent upon  a  single  planet.  But  such  knowledge 
belongs  to  the  future. 

And  so,  at  this  point,  with  some  feeling  of 
relief  we  may  return  to  our  little  Biocosmos, 
whose  second  stage  is  before  us  and  can  fully 
employ  us  with  its  vast  variety  of  organs  and 
organized  shapes,  which  we  seek  to  put  into 
some  kind  of  order  within  itself,  as  well  as  in 
relation  to  the  rest  of  the  universe. 


THE  PARTICULAKIZED  BIOCOSMOS. 

We  are  next  to  see  how  the  Biocosmos,  the 
Order  of  Life,  is  particularized,  differenti- 
ated, specialized.  What  divisions  or  stages 
does  it  now  manifest?  These,  we  may  here 
set  down  in  advance,  are  regarded  as  three — 
Plant-life,  Animal-life,  and  Earth-life.  All 
are  distinct  and  are  to  be  separately  treated; 
yet  they  are  likewise  joined  together  in  a 
certain  sequence  and  form  a  process. 

The  preceding  part,  which  considered  the 
Cellular  Biocosmos,  must  be  regarded  as  the 
immediate  or  elemental  stage  of  this  Order 
of  Life — the  primal,  constitutive  portion — 
made  up  as  it  is  of  the  cell,  which  the  three 
kinds  of  Life  pre-suppose.  Associated  cells 

(183) 


184        THE  BIOCOSMOS— PARTICULARIZED. 

with  their  varied  interdependence  and  ad- 
justment form  the  living  plant  and  animal 
as  we  see  them,  and  the  earth,  too,  in  so  far 
as  this  is  alive.  Thus  we  think  the  Biocos- 
mos  differentiating  itself  along  three  main 
lines;  or  better,  unfolding  itself  into  three 
fundamental  Life-forms,  which,  however, 
round  themselves  out  into  one  movement 
whose  theme  is  what  we  here  call  the  Partic- 
ularized Biocosmos. 

Nor  should  we  fail  to  note  that  this  is  the 
second  stage  of  the  Biocosmical  domain — that 
of  separation,  particularity,  division.  It  is 
true  that  the  cell  may  be  a  separated,  yea,  an 
isolated  object,  as  seen  under  the  all-dividing, 
separative  microscope.  It  is  as  it  were  the 
immediate  living  atom,  which  has  an  ultimate 
sameness,  but  which  is  to  combine  or  asso- 
ciate with  itself  in  producing  the  varied  Life- 
forms.  We  behold  again  the  march  from  an 
essential  identity  to  a  wide  diversity  which 
is  the  unfolding  of  the  vital  Order.  To  be 
sure  we  have  seen  that  this  atomic  cell  is  re- 
morsely  hunted  down  by  the  biologist  of  the 
present  time  with  his  sharp-sighted  weapon, 
so  that  the  cell  shrinks  to  the  cellule,  to  the 
granule,  perchance  to  the  gemmule,  which 
may  for  the  nonce  be  taken  as  the  universal 
cell,  cell  of  all  cells,  prototype  and  an  archi- 
tect of  the  rest.  Thus  the  cell  seems  to  be 


ITS  MEANING  AND  DIVISIONS. 


moving  regressively  as  well  as  progressively; 
it  is  itself  claimed  to  be  an  association  of 
lesser  cells,  and  thus  is  but  working  out  its 
own  character  in  producing  the  larger  Life- 
forms  of  Nature. 

Here  again  turns  up  the  question  which  is 
so  often  emphasized  in  this  book  :  What  is  it 
that  produces  all  this  division  and  combina- 
tion? Who  is  the  subtle  Panurge  that  can- 
not be  exorcised  from  the  minutest  form  of 
the  cell  as  well  as  its  largest  association?  The 
reader  will  probably  anticipate  our  answer: 
Psyche  is  again  present  and  incarnating  her- 
self in  all  these  living  shapes  from  least  to 
largest,  and  urging  them  forward  to  their 
goal.  Just  now,  however,  it  is  sufficient  to 
say  upon  this  point  that  the  Particularized 
Biocosmos,  our  present  theme,  is  the  second 
division  or  stage,  and  is  such  by  virtue  of 
its  psychical  character  in  the  process  of  the 
total  Biocosmos,  which  in  its  turn  is  the  third 
stage  of  Nature  as  a  whole.  Nor  will  the 
true-hearted  student  stop  in  his  thought  till 
he  has  carried  this  Biocosmical  process  up  to 
its  ultimate  source  in  the  Universe  itself  and 
has  identified  it  as  pampsychical. 

More  pressing  than  ever  is  the  need  of  some 
formulation  or  definition  of  Life,  though  hith- 
erto this  has  not  been  absent  At  present  let 
us  pick  it  up  as  a  piece  of  matter  having  the 


THE  BIOC08M08—  PARTICULARIZED' 


gift  of  moving  itself  and  of  sustaining  itself 
from  the  outside  along  with  an  internal  as- 
similation, and  of  reproducing  itself  as  indi- 
vidual. In  all  three  of  these  basic  acts  there 
is  some  form  of  self-return,  which  may  be 
regarded  as  the  characteristic  of  Life. 

Take  yourself  as  a  living  thing.  A  shred 
of  the  Cosmos  you  were  in  the  ancient  of 
days,  a  streak  of  nebula  such  as  we  still  may 
observe  in  Orion  for  instance.  Now  that  cos- 
mical  wisp  of  tenuous  fire-mist  began  to 
evolve  many  hundreds  of  millions  of  years 
ago  until  it  attained  Life  with  the  power  of 
self-movement  and  form  having  self-sustenta- 
tion  and  self  generation.  Thus  you  became  a 
member  of  the  Biocosmos,  doubtless  after* 
having  had  a  long  cosmical  experience 
(through  gravitation  for  instance)  and  also 
a  long  diacosmical  experience  (through  heat, 
light,  electricity  and  chemism,  for  instance). 
But  that  was  not  the  end  of  your  evolution  : 
through  many  a  gradation  of  Life,  probably 
from  the  cell  through  uncounted  vital  shapes, 
you  ascend  till  you  break  over  the  limit  of 
Life  into  Self-  consciousness,  truly  your  goal. 
Now  you  can  turn  back  and  view  Life  evolv- 
ing through  its  long  sequences  —  which  act 
Life  itself  could  not  perform.  What  is  it  that 
can  in  thought  re-evolve  itself  evolving 
through  multi-myriaded  millenniums?  That 


ITS  MEANING  AND  DIVISIONS. 


is  you  now  in  the  present  act  —  your  present 
Ego  as  evolved.    But  of  this,  hereafter. 

It  would  seem  that  the  sphere  of  self-move- 
ment is  extending  more  and  more  into  the 
inorganic  realm.  The  self  -forming  power  of 
the  crystal  has  long  been  remarked,  and  spec- 
ulated about,  some  observers  even  going  to 
the  extent  of  attributing  to  it  a  sort  of  life.  In 
the  crystal  Nature  manifests  herself  as  ge- 
ometrizing  purely,  and  shapes  herself  reg- 
ularly in  line,  surface  and  solid.  Given  the 
material  and  the  conditions,  it  forms  itself 
after  a  certain  type  which  is  externally  re- 
peated in  layers,  a  kind  of  outer  generation; 
just  so  much  matter  shoots  into  shape,  like 
ice  and  snow,  from  water;  it  assumes  fixed 
limits,  it  individualizes  itself  into  an  outer 
form.  Now,  every  living  thing  also  has  this 
formative  power,  it  bounds  itself  in  an  ex- 
ternal shape  which  characterizes  it  normally, 
be  it  plant  or  animal.  Undoubtedly  these 
shapes  become  very  diversified  in  life;  they 
are  the  outward  signs  of.  what  is  going  on  in- 
ward; they  show  an  ascending  line  from  the 
simplest  to  the  most  complex  or  highest  or- 
ganisms. The  crystal  is  the  first  external 
manifestation  of  this  form-making  energy  of 
Nature,  the  inorganic  formation  which  is  to 
become  organic,  or  the  shaping  power  of  Life 
taken  by  itself  before  Life.  For  every  living 


183        THE  BIOCOSMOS— PARTICULARIZED. 

thing  has  a  material  form,  an  inorganic  sub- 
strate which  it  organizes.  We  can  say  that  in 
a  degree  it  is  crystallized  into  its  typical 
form,  which  however  is  not  pure  material 
form  like  a  crystal,  but  has  Life;  this  moves 
its  form  with  a  certain  mastery,  it  sustains 
and  rebuilds  the  same,  finally  it  generates  the 
same  as  another  individual.  The  crystal  is 
accordingly  endowed  with  a  certain  formative 
spontaneity  (a  kind  of  will  in  Nature  again) 
over  lifeless  matter,  itself  remaining  lifeless, 
though  formed.  But  this  formative  power  of 
the  crystal  goes  over  into  Life,  which,  how- 
ever, employs  the  same  to  its  own  end,  so  that 
vital  forms  are  not  those  of  the  crystal.  Here, 
too,  we  ask  what  is  and  whence  comes  such 
form-giving  energy  which  can  make  matter 
move  into  a  shape,  but  not  yet  into  a  living 
shape.  The  crystal,  accordingly,  we  may  con- 
ceive as  pointing  the  way  to  Life,  though  not 
yet  alive,  a  stage  of  Unlif  e  which  strives  to  be 
alive. 

The  living  Form  cannot  stay  merely  Form, 
but  must  assimilate  sustenance  from  its  en- 
vironment, and  keep  on  assimilating.  A  con- 
tinual re-making  of  itself  from  the  external 
world  is  the  prime  function  of  this  Form, 
which  never  stops  being  formed  unless  it 
somehow  gets  crystallized,  like  a  piece  of  fos- 
sil wood.  This  is  the  ceaseless  round  of  As- 


ITS  MEANING  AND  DIVISIONS. 


simulation,  the  Form's  real  identification  of 
the  world  with  itself,  which  only  death  inter- 
rupts in  the  living  thing.  The  process  of 
Assimilation  is,  therefore,  the  perennial  bat- 
tle between  Life  and  Unlife,  through  which 
battle  every  living  individual  passes  with  vic- 
tory and  defeat. 

Still  this  living  individual  reproduces  it- 
self not  only  in  its  own  body,  but  in  another 
body;  it  begets  its  like  as  we  say.  This  is  the 
generative  Process  of  Life,  its  highest  mani- 
festation, the  supreme  act  of  Nature.  We 
see  that  the  living  organism  has  to  reproduce 
not  merely  its  own  tissues,  but  must  rise  to 
reproducing  a  different  organism;  Life  the 
very  lowest  has  thus  a  side  of  altruism,  which 
starts  far  down  in  Nature.  The  microbe's 
trend,  in  its  simple  fissiparism,  is  to  live  not 
merely  in  itself,  but  in  and  for  another.  More- 
over, the  generative  Process  returns  to  the 
starting-point  and  recreates  the  Form  which 
thus  begins  anew  the  round  of  Life. 

Manifestly  in  all  the  kinds  of  Life  —  vege- 
tal, animal,  terrestrial  —  there  is  the  threefold 
movement  above  indicated,  whose  stages  are 
Formation,  Assimilation,  Generation.  Here 
again  we  may  discern  that  inner  all-ordering 
process  so  often  noted  as  psychical,  which 
never  fails  at  the  nodal  point  to  direct  Na- 
ture. Moreover,  we  shall,  find  that  each  of 


190         THE  BIOCOSMOS— PARTICULARIZED. 

these  stages,  formative,  assimilative,  and 
generative,  has  its  own  process  also — the  part 
re-enacting  the  whole  in  order  to  be  a  part. 
Now  the  definition  of  Life  is  best  conceived 
in  these  three  terms,  with  their  process.  The 
individual  Form  which  assimilates  the  ex- 
ternal world  to  itself  (so  far  as  needful)  and 
ejects  itself  into  the  world  as  a  new  individ- 
ual Form,  is  alive,  and  nothing  else  is.  Such 
a  living  Form  is  doubly  creative,  reproducing 
itself  within  itself  and  reproducing  itself  in 
another.  It  is  said  by  many,  perhaps  by 
most  biologists,  that  Life  cannot  be  defined, 
that  what  they  are  trying  to  formulate  ad- 
mits of  no  formulation.  Such  is  their  inner 
contradiction  in  this  matter;  still  they  seem 
to  push  ahead  all  the  same,  seeking  to  define 
what  admits  of  no  definition.  For  just  this 
definition,  broadly  taken,  is  their  science, 
which  must  be,  therefore,  the  knowing  of  what 
never  can  be  known.  But  it  is  well  that  the 
scientist  on  the  whole  is  not  logical,  if  he 
were,  we  would  lose  all  the  valuable  knowl- 
edge which  he  strews  along  his  way  in  pur- 
suit of  the  Unknowable,  desperately  investi- 
gating the  Uninvestigable.  Let  the  reader 
duly  appreciate  the  scientific  consciousness, 
which  has  so  deeply  inwrought  itself  into  the 
spirit  of  our  own  age.  Nor  should  he  fail  to 
note  that  the  naturalist  generally  becomes  as 


ITS  MEANING  AND  DIVISIONS. 


dualistic  as  Nature  herself  in  whose  work- 
shop he  is  employed;  he  cannot  help  partak- 
ing of  the  character  of  the  element  in  which 
he  works;  he  has  to  become  what  he  does. 

But  returning  from  our  little  excursion, 
we  have  still  to  mark  out  in  advance  the  kinds 
of  Life  —  Plant,  Animal,  Earth  —  and  fore- 
shadow their  process.  For  they  —  Life-forms 
we  may  briefly  call  them  —  belong  together 
and  constitute  one  great  movement  of  the 
Biocosmos,  the  second  sweep  of  it,  here  des- 
ignated as  particularized.  Only  the  more 
obvious  distinctions  can  be  summarized  for 
an  outlook  over  the  whole  field;  details  will 
be  added  later. 

(I).  PLANT-LIFE.  This  is  in  the  most  im- 
mediate relation  to  the  total  Life  of  the 
Earth,  unseparated  from  the  terrestrial 
mother  is  the  Plant,  a  suckling  continuous 
and  unable  to  walk.  Not  self-centered,  each 
organ  largely  autonomous,  yet  with  a  com- 
mon center  which  lies  outside  of  them  ;  hence, 
too,  no  sensation  or  very  little,  and  no  self- 
movement  or  very  little. 

(II).  ANIMAL-LIFE.  This  is  organically 
self-centered,  the  organs  are  subordinated  to 
a  center  which  is  within  them,  and  which  is 
itself  an  organ  (the  brain).  Hence,  self- 
movement  or  locomotion,  in  which  the  organ- 
ism breaks  for  a  while  its  connection  with 


192         THE  BIOC08M08— PARTICULARIZED. 

Earth-life ;  hence,  too,  sensation,  which  marks 
the  unity  of  the  organism.  Food  is  not  im- 
mediate and  elemental  like  the  Plant's,  but 
mediated,  being  vegetal  or  animal,  or  both. 

(III.)  EARTH-LIFE.  This  embraces  the  to- 
tal round  of  the  individual  Life  of  Plant  and 
Animal,  each  and  all,  from  its  earliest  stage 
(Protobioticon)  through  its  entire  individu- 
atlon  till  its  return  to  its  original  source  in 
death.  It  is  this  Earth-life  which  sustains 
the  Plant  immediately  and  the  Animal  medi- 
ately; both  come  from  it  in  different  ways, 
move  through  it  on  different  lines,  and  are 
taken  back  to  it  for  a  new  individuation.  Such 
is  the  comprehensive  cycle  of  Earth-life, 
which  on  the  one  hand  individuates  itself 
into  Plant-life  and  Animal-life,  but  on  the 
other  hand  is  an  individual  also,  with  its  own 
round  of  Life  in  birth,  bloom  and  cessation. 

In  this  short  abstract  peers  forth  the  pro- 
cess of  the  three  great  Life-forms,  we  hope, 
or  at  least  the  suggestion  that  there  is  such 
a  process.  The  Earth-individual  is  the  living 
fountain  of  all  individuated  Life  on  the  plan- 
et; every  Form  that  is  alive  points  back  to 
this  creative  prototype  of  itself;  the  little 
microbe  as  well  as  the  huge  elephant  is  a  part 
or  member  of  the  Earth-life,  and  as  such 
has  the  essential  process  of  the  whole.  That 
is,  every  living  individual  pre-supposes  its 


ITS  MEANING  AND  DIVISIONS.  193 

universal  genetic  principle,  which  is  the  fore- 
going total  Earth-life. 

It  may  be  added  that  the  present  field,  the 
Particularized  Biocosmos,  furnishes  the  su- 
preme opportunity  for  the  comparison  of 
these  Life-forms  and  their  manifold  evolu- 
tionary phenomena.  There  is  a  Plant-norm 
with  a  double  line  of  shapes  reaching  from 
the  lowest  to  the  highest  and  from  the  remote 
geologic  past  to  the  present ;  all  these  vegetal 
shapes  are  to  be  compared  and  ordered  in- 
ternally and  externally  in  what  may  be  called 
a  comparative  Botany.  In  like  manner,  there 
is  an  Animal-norm,  with  its  double  line  of 
shapes  reaching  from  the  lowest  to  the  high- 
est and  from  the  far-off  past  to  the  present ; 
here  is  the  domain  of  a  comparative  Zoology. 
And  the  science  of  Earth-life,  Geology,  is  also 
largely  comparative,  embracing  the  Inorganic 
as  well  as  the  Organic.  Thus  we  discern  in 
the  present  subject  as  a  whole  the  Compara- 
tive Biocosmos  which  seeks  to  order  and 
hence  to  unify  all  this  diversity  of  particular- 
ized Life  according  to  its  essential  relation- 
ships. 

Science  has  by  no  means  attained  any  such 
general  principle  of  biological  comparison, 
though  searching  for  it  ardently,  as  we  see 
by  the  many  shiftings  of  the  standard  of  clas- 
sification for  both  plants  and  animals  in  re-. 


194        THE  BIOC08M08— PARTICULARIZED. 

cent  years.  But  the  ultimate  principle  of 
ordering  the  Biocosmos  must,  in  our  opinion 
be  psychical;  indeed  the  present  species,  ge- 
nera, families,  etc.,  are  not  realities,  but  ideas 
— symbols  they  are  sometimes  called.  Thus 
Psyche  is  at  work  now  in  this  realm  of  Bio- 
cosmical  organization,  but  does  not  yet  recog- 
nize herself,  and  fully  behold  her  own  process 
in  the  processes  of  Life. 


PLANT-LIFE  IN  GENERAL.  ^95 


I.     PLANT-LIFE. 

Of  the  three  kinds  of  Life-forms  which  are 
represented  on  our  globe,  the  Plant  stands 
in  the  most  immediate  connection  with  the 
Earth.  It  is  not  yet  separated  in  form  from 
its  terrestrial  mother,  not  yet  weaned  we  may 
say,  but  sucks  sustenance  directly  from  the 
maternal  bosom.  We  may  deem  it,  therefore, 
the  infant  in  comparison  with  the  Animal, 
which  is  bodily  separated  from  the  Earth, 
though  it  keeps  returning  to  her  at  every 
step.  Still  it  has  on  the  whole  the  power  of 
locomotion  or  change  of  place;  it  does  not 
cling  to  one  spot  like  the  Plant,  but  has  a 
limited  range  of  spatial  freedom.  Thus  we 
can  say  that  the  Animal  is  a  more  free  being 
than  the  Plant,  and  consequently  more  near 
to  the  goal  of  the  Universe,  if  this  goal  be 
freedom.  Mother  Earth,  however,  has  her 
own  spatial  movements,  axial  and  orbital,  and 
carries  along  her  two  living  families  of  chil- 
dren, the  vegetal  and  animal,  on  her  breast 
through  her  two  revolutions.  Such,  however, 
may  be  taken  as  the  first  fact  of  Plant-life :  it 
is  not  yet  spatially  free  of  its  nurse,  it  is  still 
a  suckling  at  the  source  of  its  existence  and 
remains  so  as  long  as  it  lives.  We  may  note, 
however,  that  there  are  some  seeming  ex- 


196        THE  BIOCOSMOS— PARTICULARIZED. 

ceptions,  such  as  the  epiphyte  with  its  roots 
dangling  in  the  air.  Certain  animals,  con- 
versely, are  fixed  to  one  place  and  appear  to 
vegetate  (the  sponges).  Still  the  typical 
plant  has  this  primal  character  of  being  direct- 
ly rooted  in  the  Earth,  whose  three  main  ele- 
ments (land,  water,  air)  are  its  immediate 
sustenance.  Thus  it  is  truly  the  elemental 
Life-form,  feeding  on  the  Inorganic  directly, 
and  transmuting  the  same  into  the  Organic, 
even  if  some  Plants  (like  the  Dionaea)  may 
be  supposed  to  have  a  relish  for  animal  food. 
The  Plant  is  a  living  organism,  with  a  com- 
mon center,  yet  this  center  is  not  specialized 
inside  the  organism,  but  lies  more  on  the  out- 
side, in  the  Earth.  The  result  is  that  the 
Plant  is  not  self-anchored  but  fixed  in  the 
soil,  and  that  each  organ,  even  if  working 
for  a  common  end,  may  act  quite  independ- 
ently, and  one  can  often  be  made  to  take  the 
place  of  another.  Thus  the  vegetal  organism 
is  not  a  profoundly  associated  system  of  mu- 
tually interrelated  organs,  but  rather  a 
league  (to  employ  an  institutional  parallel) 
of  more  or  less  independent  members,  each 
of  which  may  perform  under  certain  condi- 
tions the  total  process.  So  the  leaf  or  bud 
or  shoot  may  show  itself  by  growth  the  entire 
Plant.  We  cannot  wholly  deny  to  the  organs 
of  the  Plant  a  certain  interdependence,  yet  it 


PLANT-LIFE—  FO  RMATION. 


is  relatively  external;  while  that  of  the  Ani- 
mal's organs  is  internal  in  comparison;  mu- 
tual co-operation  of  parts  is  not  written  so 
indelibly  on  the  limbs  of  the  tree  as  on  the 
limbs  of  the  horse.  The  life  of  the  Plant  re- 
mains, therefore,  a  kind  of  child-life  with  its 
rooted  attachment  to  its  mother  ;  it  never  out- 
grows infancy,  for  the  tall  Sequoia  of  many 
hundreds  of  years  ever  remains  a  baby  at 
the  breast. 

Still  the  Plant  is  alive,  and  has  the  uni- 
versal process  of  all  Life,  which  process  be- 
comes an  emphatic  ground  of  the  unity  and 
the  organization  of  the  present  stage  of  the 
Biocosmos  (the  Particularized).  As  already 
indicated,  Plant-life  will  show  the  three 
phases  of  all  vital  activity:  Formation,  As- 
similation, and  Generation. 

I.  THE  FOKMATIVE  PROCESS  OF  PLANT-LIFE. 
The  Plant  has  an  external  Form  which  char- 
acterizes it  ;  everybody  soon  learns  to  distin- 
guish it  from  all  other  objects,  even  if  in 
micro-organisms  it  is  often  difficult  for  the 
trained  observer  to  tell  a  Plant  from  an  Ani- 
mal. Granted  that  there  is  a  field  in  which 
the  two  are  hardly  yet  differentiated,  the  de- 
veloped or  normal  Plant-form  is  not  ambig- 
uous, though  exceedingly  varied.  The  orig- 
inative type  has  many  manifestations,  all  of 
which  are  different.  No  two  Plant-forms  of 


198         THE  BWCOSMOS— PARTICULARIZED. 

the  same  species  are  just  alike,  each  has  its 
own  individuality.  Al^so  each  asserts  itself 
against  the  other,  hence  arises  that  struggle 
of  the  individual,  Plant  or  Animal,  to  exist 
and  to  propagate  itself — the  struggle  for  ex- 
istence throughout  living  Nature,  which  has 
been  made  so  famous  by  Darwin.  Every  indi- 
vidual Plant,  therefore,  differs  from  the  rest, 
varying  in  form;  and  this  variation  may  be 
its  fate  or  its  fortune,  the  pivot  on  which 
turns  its  sweep  to  death,  or  to  the  continu- 
ance of  life  as  individual  or  as  species.  So 
the  Plant-form  has  specially  in  recent  times 
become  very  important  not  only  in  Botany 
but  in  Natural  Science,  its  problem  being: 
Can  it  preserve  and  propagate  itself  not  only 
as  type  but  as  peculiar  individual? 

In  this  connection  comes  up  the  remarkable 
experience  of  DeVries  with  his  Evening 
Primrose  which  he  happened  to  find  in  a 
potato  field,  seemingly  a  runaway  from  culti- 
vation. In  its  freedom  it  was  playing  all 
sorts  of  antics  with  its  transmitted  Form,  of 
which  nearly  every  organ  was  varying  from 
what  it  ought  to  be  by  tradition ;  in  fact,  new 
organs  seemed  to  be  breaking  out,  especially 
in  the  shape  of  fasciae  and  pitchers,  though 
these  might  be  called  malformations.  This 
variability  sported  even  with  the  length  of 
life;  ordinarily  the  plant  was  a  biennial,  but 


PLANT-LIFE— FORMATION.  199 

could  be  an  annual,  or  even  a  triennial.  Then 
each  variation  would  breed  its  own,  and  prop- 
agate itself,  quitting  apparently  its  former 
changeful  character  for  a  settled  heredity. 
Thus  DeVries  obtained  a  number  of  new  spe- 
cies, which  would  keep  on  reproducing  their 
own  kind.  So  this  one  Primrose  seems  to 
have  the  power  of  generating  not  only  indi- 
viduals but  species,  and  of  passing  from  the 
regular  transmitted  Homogenesis  to  a  sudden 
explosive  Heterogenesis,  which  ejects  all  at 
once  new  Plant-forms,  which  again  become 
homogenetic.  Such  is  the  Mutation  Theory 
(a  poor. designation  of  the  fact)  which  to  the 
slow  orderly  Evolution  of  Darwin  has  added 
the  rapid  catastrophic  Eevolution,  as  a  stage 
of  the  innocent  paradisaical  Plant-world,  so 
that  this  is  getting  to  be  as  bad  as  man,  quite 
as  much  of  a  fallen  soul.  In  fact  one  may 
think  of  that  Primrose  of  DeVries  as  ex- 
pelled, or  rather  fleeing  from  the  Garden  of 
Eden  fixed  in  a  kind  of  sacred  order,  to  the 
liberty  of  the  potato  patch,  where  it  could 
rollick  in  the  creation  of  new  Forms,  repro- 
ducing not  only  Primroses  after  the  old  pat- 
tern, but  reproducing  new  patterns  in  a  free 
diversity  of  creative  energy.  The  little  silent 
flower,  symbol  of  innocence  and  submission, 
has,  then,  in  its  heart,  too,  the  revolutionary 
impulse,  the  protest  against  its  traditional 


200         THE  BIOC08M08— PARTICULARIZED. 

limitations,  the  barrier-bursting  Titanic 
spirit  which  under  a  favoring  environment 
will  break  forth  in  a  kind  of  volcanic  up- 
heaval. So  we  have  to  note  the  Negative  in 
the  Psyche  of  the  Plant,  where  we  hardly  ex- 
pected to  find  it  so  strongly  manifesting  it- 
self. Still  therein  it  is  a  true  child  of  Nature 
who  springs  of  the  deepest  dualism  of  the 
Universe  itself. 

Viewed  from  another  side,  it  may  be  seen 
that  the  Plant,  even  the  humblest  specimen, 
has  in  itself  the  sleeping  potentiality  of  all 
vegetal  species,  genera,  families — yea,  of  the 
entire  vegetal  kingdom.  That  little  Primrose 
started  to  reproduce  not  merely  some  new 
specific  Forms  of  itself,  but  an  entirely  new 
Plant-world,  which  must  have  lain  ideally  in 
it,  and  have  impelled  it  toward  realization. 
Yet,  Time  was  needed,  many  geologic  ages  in 
fact.  But  the  Dutch  botanist  (DeVries) 
came  along  just  in  its  earliest  stage,  when  it 
had  only  taken  its  first  step  by  reproducing 
some  fresh  species.  These  he  picked  up,  see- 
ing his  opportunity,  and  turned  back  into  the 
regular  reproduction  of  like  individuals  by 
cultivation.  Thus  the  floral  revolution  was 
literally  nipped  in  the  bud,  and  the  rebel 
brought  back  into  the  pre-established  order 
of  garden  life. 

So  much  lies  implicitly  in  the  Formative 


PLANT-LIFE—FORMATION.  201 

Process  of  the  Plant,  which  is  always  taking 
place  in  a  constituted  Form,  usually  named 
its  organism.  This  is  what  we  shall  now 
study  more  specially. 

1.  The  Plant  Organism  as  a  ivhole.  Before 
we  begin  viewing  its  separate  parts,  it  is 
well  to  look  at  the  Plant  as  a  whole.  In  its 
highest  forms  it  has  the  tendency  to  stand 
erect,  perpendicular  to  the  Earth  in  its  stem, 
as  if  showing  a  certain  degree  of  independ- 
ence and  self-assertion.  On  the  other  hand 
many  plants  crawl,  and  others  droop,  unable 
to  support  themselves  fully  in  separation 
from  their  source.  Thus  there  is  a  long  line 
of  Plants  from  lowest  to  highest  in  a  gra- 
dation of  excellence,  it  would  seem.  Hence, 
at  this  point  rises  the  query:  What  is  the 
criterion  of  such  excellence?  How  shall  we 
order  and  grade  the  Plant  Organism  before 
us,  belonging  as  it  seems,  somewhere  in  the 
vegetal  hierarchy! 

Of  the  animal  kingdom,  the  king  is  mani- 
fest and  generally  acknowledged:  Man's  or- 
ganism is  the  highest;  it  has  evolved  to  the 
supremacy,  even  if  it  be  no  longer  evolving, 
as  some  say.  Supposing  that  the  Plant  and 
Animal  start  together  far  back  somewhere 
in  the  Protobioticon,  they  begin  soon  to  bifur- 
cate and  each  starts  developing  on  its  own 
line  of  ascent.  The  Animal  in  many  ways 


202        THE  BIOC08M08— PARTICULARIZED. 

outstrips  the  Plant,  chiefly  because  it  has 
shown  the  power  of  evolving  a  distinctly  reg- 
nant form,  the  human.  The  vegetable  line 
also  shows  in  general  an  upward  evolution; 
the  so-called  Cryptogam  (a  designation  often 
discarded  today  but  still  useful)  is  manifestly 
a  lower  organism  than  the  Phanerogam  or 
the  flowering  plant.  But  what  genus  among 
Phanerogams  corresponds  in  the  Plant  world 
to  the  genus  homo  in  the  Animal  world?  If 
we  take  size  as  criterion,  shall  it  be  the  bao- 
bab of  Madagascar,  the  banyan  of  India,  or 
the  sequoia  of  California!  Hardly;  by  the 
same  test  the  elephant  might  be  throned  as  the 
supreme  animal  instead  of  man.  The  total 
tree  of  Plant-life  seems  not  to  top  out  in 
what  is  most  excellent  of  its  own,  as  does  the 
corresponding  tree  of  Animal  life.  The  line 
of  evolution  through  Nature  into  Self-con- 
sciousness toward  the  All-Self,  does  not  pass 
by  way  of  the  Plant,  which  seems,  after  reach- 
ing a  certain  stage,  to  break  off  and  scatter. 
The  fact  corresponds  to  the  character  of 
the  Plant  which  lacks  concentration.  Each 
vegetal  part  or  region  is  endowed  with  a  kind 
of  autonomy,  which  will  not  permit  a  com- 
pletely centralized  authority  like  that  of  the 
higheranimal.  The  Plant  Organism  has  no  true 
head,  as  there  is  in  it  no  true  headship.  In 
like  manner  it  has  no  central  stomach,  as  each 


PLANT-LIFE— FORMATION.  203 

portion  of  the  body  does  its  own  digesting. 
Everywhere  the  Plant  excretes,  which  is 
known  as  its  transpiration.  A  developed 
single  organ  of  heart  or  of  lungs  it  has  not, 
yet  it  has  circulation  at  every  point  and  res- 
piration also,  though  the  latter  be  special- 
ized in  the  leaves.  It  is  evident  that  Plant- 
Organism  as  a  whole  has  not  yet  subordinated 
its  Parts,  each  of  which  insists  in  a  manner 
upon  being  the  Whole,  and  performing  the 
functions  of  the  same.  Though  an  organism 
it  has  not  yet  differentiated  itself  into  co- 
operant  organs,  with  their  division  of  labor, 
and  their  subsumption  under  a  common  con- 
trol. Comparatively  speaking,  the  Plant  is 
multicentral  while  the  animal  as  typical  is 
unicentral.  Of  course  the  lower  animals  in 
this  characteristic  approach  the  Plant. 
Doubtless  the  best  criterion  of  the.  grade  of 
the  vegetal  Organism  would  be  this  inner  sub- 
ordination of  the  parts  to  the  whole. 

Goethe's  statement  of  the  foregoing  fact 
(in  his  Morphology)  has  by  no  means  become 
antiquated  in  our  present  knowledge:  "The 
less  perfect  the  organism  is,  the  more  similar 
its  parts  are  to  one  another,  and  the  more 
they  resemble  the  whole  organism.  The  more 
perfect  the  organism,  the  more  dissimilar  its 
parts  to  one  another  and  to  the  whole  or- 
ganism.'* Now  it  is  the  Plant  whose  organs, 


204        THE  BIOCOSMOS— PARTICULARIZED. 

in  contrast  to  those  of  the  Animal,  are  similar 
to  one  another  and  to  the  total  body.  More- 
over the  same  principle  is  a  criterion  of  grad- 
ing both  Plants  and  Animals.  Goethe  goes 
on:  "The  more  similar  the  parts,  the  less 
are  they  subordinated  to  one  another;  the 
subordination  of  the  parts  points  to  a  more 
perfect  organism. ' '  As  already  indicated,  the 
Plant  lacks  this  subordination  of  the  many 
organs  to  the  one  central  organ. 

2.  The  Plant  Organism  in  its  dual  sym- 
metry. The  next  fact  to  be  regarded  in  the 
Plant  Organism  is  what  appears  a  double 
polarity — it  has  two  poles,  opposite  yet  sym- 
metrical. Boots  and  rootlets  grow  down- 
ward, seeking  the  dark;  branches  and  leaves 
grow  upward  seeking  the  light.  The  inter- 
mediate trunk  embodies  both  tendencies :  it, 
as  if  manifesting  Nature's  dualism,  waxes 
both  earthward  and  sunward,  with  a  part 
unseen  and  a  part  seen.  Striking  is  this  po- 
larity of  the  typical  Plant;  indeed  it  re- 
sembles an  upright  magnetic  bar  at  whose 
ends  above  and  below  are  raying  out  lines  of 
iron  filings.  Evidently  vital  energy  here  di- 
vides and  moves  in  two  opposite  directions, 
becoming  positive  and  negative,  we  can  say 
analogically.  This  may  even  be  the  work  of 
electricity,  which  is  now  being  studied  a  good 
deal  in  Plant-life  by  scientists,  At  any  rate 


PLANT-LIFE—FORMATION.  205 

we  can  affirm  simply  from  the  phenomenon 
that  the  roots  are  more  gravitational  and  thus 
cosmical,  while  the  branches  are  more  de- 
gravitational  and  thus  diacosmical.  So  we 
have  the  right  to  think  of  the  Cosmos  and 
Diacosmos,  each  with  its  own  counter  en- 
ergy, as  united  and  mediated  in  the  life  of 
the  Plant-Organism,  which  as  alive  belongs 
to  the  Biocosmos. 

This  symmetrical  dualism  of  Plant-life  we 
may  also  notice  in  Animal-life  and  Earth-life 
though  in  wholly  different  forms.  For  in- 
stance the  animal  is  divided  lengthwise -along 
the  so-called  median  line  into  two  halves 
which  constitute  what  is  known  as  its  bi-lat- 
eral  symmetry ;  each  side  of  your  body,  right 
and  left,  is  symmetrically  twinned  to  form  a 
rounded  whole.  The  Plant-Organism  has, 
however,  its  symmetry  between  its  two  ends, 
not  between  its  two  sides ;  is  bi-terminal,  not 
bi-lateral.  Finally  the  Earth-Organism  is 
likewise  ideally  divided  along  a  median  line 
which  runs  round  the  globe,  and  is  known  as 
the  Equator.  But  in  this  case  the  separation 
is  not  terminal  or  lateral,  but  spherical;  an- 
alogously we  may  call  the  earth's  double  sym- 
metry bi- spherical  (or  bi-hemispherical).  The 
main  interest  in  the  present  case  is  to  see  the 
three  ultimate  Life-forms,  Plant,  Animal,  and 
Earth,  each  dividing  itself  into  symmetrical 


206         THE  BIOCOSMOS— PARTICULARIZED. 

halves,  so  as  to  become  one  in  the  process  of 
its  Organism. 

This  dual  symmetry,  present  in  every  or- 
ganism which  Life  brings  forth,  may  well  be 
regarded  as  the  impress  of  Nature  herself 
upon  her  living  forms,  showing  her  inherent 
dualism  in  all  her  creatures.  She  must  be 
twofold,  halved  to  be  a  whole,  bi-f ormed  to  be 
one  form.  Life  is  indeed  the  unification  of 
the  twofoldness  of  Nature  which  still  remains 
twofold  in  its  outer  manifestation,  else  it 
would  no  longer  be  Nature.  Life,  therefore, 
is  always  positing  the  two  sides  of  Nature 
in  the  very  oneness  of  its  process.  This  vital 
oneness  is  to  be  identified  as  the  Psyche  now 
gotten  inside  the  Physis,  ever  overcoming  the 
dualism  yet  ever  replacing  it  afresh.  Such 
is  the  round  everywhere  manifested  in  the 
Biocosmos,  the  outer  Form  of  which  we  may 
glimpse  in  this  dual  symmetry  of  the  Organ- 
ism. 

3.  The  Plant  Organism  differentiated.  To- 
day there  seems  a  tendency  among  botanists 
to  separate  the  Plant  Organism  into  two 
parts,  root  and  shoot.  Under  the  latter  are 
included  the  stem  and  branches  with  the 
leaves.  Verbally  considered,  the  root  is  as 
much  of  a  shoot  as  the  twigs  and  foliage, 
though  the  one  works  in  the  soil  and  the  other 
in  the  air.  But  the  deeper  objection  to  such 


PLANT-LIFE—FORMATION.  207 

a  division  is  that  the  stem  or  trunk  is  ignored 
in  its  double  and  mediating  character  between 
the  two  extremes,  or  ends,  for  it  is  both  root 
and  shoot,  growing  downward  as  well  as  up- 
ward, nightward  as  well  as  lightward,  termi- 
nating in  rootlet  as  well  as  in  leaflet.  Thus 
the  Plant  Organism,  if  it  be  divided  accord- 
ing to  its  inner  nature  and  process,  must  be 
taken  as  constituted  of  three  basic  members 
which  unite  into  the  one  organic  whole  as 
vegetal — stem  or  trunk,  root  with  fibrils,  and 
top  with  branches  or  foliage. 

The  stem  we  put  first,  as  it  is  the  central 
shaft  from  which  radiate  the  two  ends  into 
their  symmetrical  systems  of  ramification— 
the  one  in  the  earthy  element,  the  other  in  the 
aerial.  Moreover  it  has  the  tendency  to  be 
cylindrical,  in  itself  and  also  in  its  off-shoots 
(excepting  the  leaf),  which  form  indicates 
that  the  original  spherical  shape  of  Nature, 
which  is  so  common  in  the  bodies  of  the  Cos- 
mos, is  elongated  by  pushing  outwards  in 
two  opposite  directions.  Plant-life,  germi- 
nating originally  doubtless  from  primal 
earth-life  (Protobioticon)  expands  the  first 
seed-ball  as  a  little  round  cell  into  the  cylin- 
der, which  remains  so  characteristic  of  vege- 
tation. Embryonically  the  stem  is  first  al- 
ready (the  caulicle)  to  which  the  cotyledons 
(seed-leaves)  are  attached;  thus  it  would 


208        THE  BIOCOSMOS— PARTICULARIZED. 

seem  to  be  the  primordial  source  of  the  other 
two  parts  (root  and  foliage),  containing  orig- 
inally within  itself  their  opposite  tendencies 
already  mentioned,  the  upward  and  the  down- 
ward, or  the  diacosmical  and  the  cosmical, 
which  tendencies  it  keeps  active  as  long  as 
there  is  life.  The  stem  is  also  the  criterion 
of  the  second  grand  division  of  Plants,  that 
of  the  phanerogams  into  endogens  and  exo- 
gens,  though  the  two  kinds  of  seed-leaf  are 
taken  as  the  basis  for  the  same  division  (mo- 
nocotyledonous  and  dicotyledonous). 

The  root  with  its  system  may  be  regarded 
as  the  second  member  of  the  Plant  Organism, 
from  which  it  at  once  springs  in  germination 
as  the  primal  separation.  Significant  is  the 
fact  that  certain  lower  Plants  have  forms 
which  indicate  that  stem  and  root  are  not  yet 
differentiated  (in  the  Dioscorea  for  instance). 
The  root  can  be  seen  to  have  several  pur- 
poses, but  the  primary  one  is  to  fix  the  Plant 
to  and  in  the  Earth,  whereby  it  is  anchored  to 
one  spot,  and  then  to  start  it  to  sucking  the 
maternal  breast  for  nourishment  (imbibi- 
tion). Still  further,  the  root  can  be  the  store- 
house of  life  for  the  Plant.  It  is  in  general 
cylindrical  like  the  stem  and  upper  branches, 
but  longer  and  more  irregular  and  sinuous, 
since  it  has  to  crawl  and  wind  about  in  many 
directions  to  find  its  aliment,  which  is  not 


PLANT-LIFE—FORMATION.  209 

evenly  distributed  in  the  soil.  So  the  leaf 
and  branch  can  be  more  orderly  and  straight 
in  the  regular  air  and  sunshine  than  the  root, 
which  has  to  increase  its  surface  by  a  vast 
number  of  hair-fibres  reaching  out  their  little 
mouths  for  water  and  nutriment  on  all  sides. 
Underground  there  can  be  no  flattened  leaf, 
which  has  simply  to  extend  its  hand  and  re- 
ceive directly  the  downpour  of  rain  and  shine. 
Many  kinds  of  roots  have  been  described  and 
figured  in  the  books;  but  here  we  need  only 
note  the  fact,  so  characteristic  of  the  vegetal 
principle,  that  any  part  of  the  Plant  -Beems 
capable  of  being  metamorphosed,  under  right 
conditions,  into  the  root.  We  have  hitherto 
spoken  of  soil  roots;  but  the  other  elements, 
air  and  water,  produce  roots  in  certain  Plants 
(instances  are  the  duckweed  as  water-plant 
and  the  orchid  as  air  plant).  The  same  Plant 
has  been  known  to  change  its  root  from  one 
element  to  another.  Moreover  the  aerial 
branch  of  the  banyan,  the  East-Indian  fig 
tree,  drops  to  the  earth  and  takes  root,  chang- 
ing to  a  new  stem  also.  Thus  we  observe  a 
part  of  the  Plant  becoming  not  only  another 
part,  but  the  total  Plant,  which  even  as  nor- 
mal is  not  possessed  of  a  strong,  self-assert- 
ing individuality  compared  to  the  Animal. 
The  root,  babe-like,  has  to  take  its  food  in 
solution  from  the  soil,  and  this  gives  to  the 


210         THE  BIOCOSMOS—PARTICULARIZED. 

Plant  its  earthy  matter,  its  fixed  element  or 
skeleton,  which  enables  it  to  stand  erect.  (Of 
course  many  Plants  do  not  mount,  but  droop 
and  creep).  The  root,  accordingly,  fastens 
the  Plant  to  one  place,  and  imparts  firmness 
to  its  body;  grasping  with  its  thousand  little 
fingers  Mother  Earth,  it  begins  to  suck. 

Worth  repeating  is  the  fact,  as  character- 
istic of  PlanMife,  that  the  root  can  be  meta- 
morphosed into  stem  and  branch,  and  made 
to  put  forth  leaves.  The  reason  is  that  there 
is  no  central  subordination  of  parts  or  very 
little;  each  organ  is  similar  to  the  rest  and 
to  the  whole  organism.  Hence  it  comes  that 
each  organ  can  so  easily  take  the  place  of  an- 
other and  of  the  total  body.  That  is,  the  or- 
gans of  the  Plant  have  autonomy  and  equal- 
ity, but  small  centrality.  There  is  indeed  as- 
sociation— that  of  cells  into  the  organ,  that  of 
organs  into  the  organism,  that  of  organisms 
into  plant  societies — still  this  association  is 
relatively  weak  and  immature  all  the  way 
through,  in  comparison  with  that  of  the  ani- 
mal. 

The  leaf  with  its  spreading  system  of  buds 
and  branches,  in  other  words  the  typical  tree- 
top,  we  arrange  as  the  third  member  of  the 
Plant  Organism  as  manifested  in  the  outer 
Form.  Here  we  see  the  strong  contrast  with 
the  concentration  of  the  stem  which  holds  it 


PLAINT-LIFE— FORMATION.  £11 

up  and  from  which  it  rays  out  on  every  side, 
when  it  is  free  to  unfold,  into  a  rounded, 
somewhat  hemispherical  or  conical  shape. 
Moreover  it  is  the  symmetrical  counterpart 
of  the  root-system,  which  also  radiates  in  all 
directions  from  the  stem  as  original  center. 
But  the  root  is  all  puckered  mouth  for  suc- 
tion, while  the  leaf  is  all  extended  hand  for 
receiving  what  falls,  though  it  too  has  pores 
for  absorbing  its  gifts.  The  leaf  has  the  ten- 
dency to  take  the  horizontal  position  at  right 
angles  to  the  perpendicular  stem,  chiefly  for 
the  sake  of  catching  the  sun's  rays  on  its 
broad  upper  surface.  By  this  purpose  also 
the  direction  of  the  branches  is  controlled: 
they  quit  the  central  stem  and  spread  out  to 
carry  the  leaf  to  sunshine.  From  this  fact 
it  is  evident  that  the  branch  properly  belongs 
to  the  leaf-system  which  separates  it  from 
its  original  home,  and  governs  its  course  out- 
ward and  upward.  For  it  is  the  leaf  which 
is  to  get  not  only  light  (as  the  books  too  nar- 
rowly put  it)  but  also  heat,  yea  electricity; 
we  should  add,  too,  chemism  from  the  so- 
called  actinic  ray;  thus  all  the  diacosmical 
radiants,  as  well  as  chemical  energy  are  taken 
up  by  the  leaf  in  the  sunbeam.  Nor  is  this 
all:  the  two  general  fluids,  water  and  air,  be- 
long in  the  workshop  of  the  leaf.  Thus  it  will 
be  seen  that  the  leaf  grapples  with  the  whole 


212         THE  BIOCOSM08— PARTICULARIZED. 

range  of  the  Diacosmos,  fluid,  radiant,  and 
chemical,  transforming  it  into  the  vital 
sphere  or  the  Biocosmos.  The  Plant,  then, 
largely  through  its  leaf  reveals  itself  as  sub- 
ordinating the  whole  separative  domain  of 
Nature,  and  making  it  over,  into  the  rounded 
process  of  Life,  the  next  higher  stage.  We 
hail  the  appearance  of  the  doctrine  of  helio- 
tropism  in  recent  botany,  but  it  must  be  vast- 
ly extended,  and  more  deeply  interpreted. 
The  turn  of  the  Plant  to  the  sun  (heliotrop- 
ism)  means  far  more  than  its  turn  to  light, 
important  as  this  is. 

The  leaf  in  itself  forms  a  very  interesting 
and  significant  study  of  great  diversity,  capa- 
ble of  being  ordered  into  the  image  of  the  to- 
tal Plant  and  of  all  Life,  yea  of  the  Universe 
itself  in  small.  First  the  leaf  differentiates 
itself  into  an  upper  sunward  surface,  and  a 
lower  shadeward  surface,  then  it  shows  a  vast 
multiplicity  of  shapes,  outlines,  sizes,  quali- 
ties, so  that  each  tree  or  brush  may  be  said 
to  have  its  own  leaf,  and  this  often  varies  a 
good  deal  on  the  same  bush  or  even  twig.  The 
kinds  of  venation  in  the  leaf  (paral- 
lel-veined and  netted- veined)  seem  to 
indicate  a  great  node  in  the  evolu- 
tion of  Plant-life,  conjointly  with  the  two 
sorts  of  cotyledons.  In  fact  the  leaf  may  be 
put  into  the  line  of  vegetal  evolution  to  repre- 


PLANT-LIFE—FORMATION.  213 

sent  the  ascent  of  the  Plant  out  of  the  first 
thallus  in  which  it  is  not  yet  differentiated 
from  stem  and  root.  Sometimes  it  has  the 
motile  gift  like  the  sensitive  plant,  whose 
caprices  have  hardly  yet  been  fathomed.  The 
leaf  has  also  its  varied  inner  structure,  or  cell- 
ular anatomy;  suggestive  too  is  its  outer  ar- 
rangement on  the  stem  (phyllotaxy).  But 
any  ordering  of  these  details  of  the  leaf  we 
shall  have  to.  omit. 

So  we  conceive  the  vegetal  organism  dif- 
ferentiated into  its  three  chief  members — 
stem,  root,  foliage — which  are  to  be  grasped 
in  their  order  and  as  a  process.  In  the  nor- 
mal Plant-form  this  process  is  going  on  all 
the  time.  The  stem  pushes  to  the  earth  first, 
returning  to  the  mother  after  the  first  separ- 
ation of  life  into  the  cell  or  into  the  thallus. 
This  perpetual  movement  of  the  Plant  down- 
ward or  perchance  backward  to  its  origin  is 
called  its  geotropism,  or  the  turn  to  the  Earth 
from  which  it  has  to  recuperate  by  incessant 
draughts  of  its  own  elements.  But  now  fol- 
lows the  deeper  act.  From  the  sun  sprang 
Mother  Earth,  who  thus  on  her  part  has 
her  remoter  origin — her  solar  father  we  may 
call  him,  to  whom  the  Plant  goes  back  for 
radiance  which  the  Earth  cannot  furnish. 
This  is  what  has  been  already  alluded  to  as 
the  Plant's  Jieliotropism.  So  the  stem  turns 


214        THE  BIOCOSMOS— PARTICULARIZED. 

about  and  grows  in  the  opposite  direction  to- 
ward its  primal  creative  source,  even  if  far 
more  removed  in  space  and  time.  There  can 
be  no  doubt,  however,  that  Sun's  provident 
gifts — Heat,  Light,  and  Electricity  together- 
nursed  the  first  Earth-life,  hatched  the  cos- 
mic egg  into  the  earliest  living  thing  on  our 
planet.  Now  this  process  of  origination  from 
sunlight  all  Plants 'have  to  re-enact,  even  if 
some  burrow  in  the  soil.  And  the  animal  too 
goes  back  to  the  same  source.  So  the  petty 
bramble  is  not  only  born  and  suckled  of  the 
Earth-Mother  (in  the  roots),  but  is  kept  alive 
and  made  to  grow  by  its  grandfather,  Old  Sol 
(in  the  foliage).  Stem,  root  and  leaf  involve 
in  their  genesis  the  sun  and  the  planet.  Ver- 
ily the  totality  of  Nature  is  required  to  pro- 
duce the  smallest  physical  object,  which  in 
turn  reveals  its  far-off  origin  through  its  pro- 
cess when  this  is  rightly  seen  into. 

In  such  a  way  we  behold  the  Plant  Organ- 
ism rounding  itself  out  through  its  three  con- 
stitutive members'into  the  movement  of  vege- 
tal life.  In  fact  we  may  observe  this  round  of 
stem,  root,  and  foliage  returning  into  itself 
when  the  branch  of  the  banyan  tree  drops 
down  to  the  earth,  becoming  root  and  stem 
as  well  as  branch.  So  the  top  genetically 
bends  around  into  its  origin  and  re-creates 
the  whole  Plant  without  unfolding  into  the 


PLANT-LIFE—FORMATION.  215 

seed.  But  the  foliage  remains  as  it  were  one 
tree-top  with  many  stems  and  their  roots. 

Each  leaf  in  the  typical  Plant,  when  it  has 
performed  its  function,  returns  to  the  Earth 
whence,  it  arose  and  restores  the  material 
which  it  borrowed,  thus  making  its  final 
round.  Also  the  seed,  the  supreme  purpose 
and  end  of  the  Plant,  drops  back  to  its  origin- 
ative starting  point  and  is  to  reproduce  the 
entire  Organism  anew  in  stem,  root,  and  foli- 
age. But  this  involves  a  new  process. 

With  this  differentiation  of  the  Plant  into 
stem,  root,  and  leaf  as  stages  of  the  one  vege- 
tal Form  joined  into  a  single  process,  we  have 
come  back  to  the  Plant  Organism  as  a  whole 
united  in  and  through  its  divisions  and  differ- 
ences. The  parts  are  seen  to  make  the  total- 
ity, not  merely  as  an  external  aggregate,  but 
as  an  inner  completeness  and  fulfillment. 
Such  is  the  outcome  of  the  Formative  Process 
of  Plant-life,  which  presents  to  us  the  indi- 
vidual Form  of  the  Plant,  as  it  appears  on  our 
earth.  Now  it  is  this  individual  Form  with 
which  botanical  science  chiefly  deals,  analyz- 
ing, comparing,  synthesizing  it  in  various 
ways.  But  the  natural  Form  of  the  Plant, 
the  science  thereof,  and  the  scientist  too  must 
all  be  seen  at  last  as  parts  or  phases  of  the 
same  ultimate  principle,  that  of  the  Biocos- 
mos. 


216         THE  BIOCOSMOS— PARTICULARIZED. 

It  is  true  that  this  Plant-form  in  the  pres- 
ent case  was  taken  for  granted ;  it  was,  so  to 
speak,  something  externally  picked  up  and 
looked  at  in  its  outer  organization.  But  the 
question  rises,  how  is  this  Form  kept  going, 
for  it  is  always  in  vital  activity?  This  vege- 
tal Form  persists  in  reproducing  and  re-con- 
stituting itself,  being  both  the  worker  and  the 
wrought;  what  is  continually  being  made  is 
the  maker.  Still  it  has  to  have  material  for 
its  work ;  the  living  machine  has  to  be  fed  not 
only  to  keep  the  machine  running,  but  to  be 
always  re-making  it.  This  brings  us  to  con- 
sider the  second  stage  of  the  Plant-Organism : 
its  power  of  assimilating  unto  itself  what  is 
different,  of  transforming  Unlif e  into  Life. 

II.  THE  ASSIMILATIVE  PKOCESS  OF  PLANT- 
LIFE.  In. the  present  stage  there  is  a  pervas- 
ive twofoldness  which,  though  overcome  for 
a  moment  is  posited  always  anew:  the  Plant 
as  living  individual  versus  its  elemental  sur- 
roundings which  it  has  to  assimilate  in  order 
to  live  and  reproduce  its  Form.  So  the  sep- 
aration between  Plant  and  non-Plant,  between 
the  formed  and  the  unformed,  comes  to  the 
front ;  the  vegetal  individual  is  now  to  tackle 
its  opposite  and  to  transmute  it  into  its  own 
organism  just  through  that  organism. 

The  ultimate  life-unit  of  the  Plant  is  the 
cell,  as  already  indicated ;  thus  we  have  again 


PLANT-LIFE—ASSIMILATION.  217 

to  take  a  glance  at  that  wonderful  little  crea- 
ture creating  itself  and  then  building  itself 
into  its  own  house  through  association.  Ver- 
ily the  cell  is  the  brickmaker  and  the  brick- 
layer, yea  even  the  brick  of  Life's  edifice.  It 
is  primarily  a  self-contained  structure,  yet  it 
associates  itself  into  the  organs  of  the  Plant, 
which  organs  do  not  halt  in  their  associative 
feat  but  constitute  the  total  organism  of  the 
Plant.  And  this  is  not  the  end  of  their  asso- 
ciation, which  rises  to  forming  Plant  socie- 
ties, of  which  recent  Botany  has  much  to  say. 
The  Formative  Process  previously  de- 
scribed cannot  live  on  itself,  but  must  be  fed 
from  the  outside ;  hence  the  Plant  will  attack 
its  environment  and  appropriate  what  it 
needs  thereof  to  its  own  use.  Such  are  the 
two  sides  of  the  conflict  which  now  opens — 
the  conflict  between  the  Plant  and  the  world 
external  to  it,  some  of  which  it  must  internal- 
ize and  assimilate  to  its  own  working  Organ- 
ism. This  process  goes  by  various  names — 
nutrition,  metabolism,  assimilation;  on  the 
whole  we  prefer  the  last,  as  best  indicating 
the  fact.  For  the  Organism  has  now  to  take 
up  and  make  like  to  itself  what  is  different 
and  outside;  thus  it  continually  is  getting 
back  the  strength  which  it  spends  to  acquire 
strength — and  something  more.  In  the  move- 
ment of  the  Plant,  accordingly,  the  present 


218         THE  BIOCOSMOS— PARTICULARIZED. 

stage  is  that  of  difference,  of  separation,  of 
battle  ever  won  and  ever  renewed. 

On  the  -one  hand  the  Plant  has  to  seize  and 
assimilate  earthy  matter,  water,  and  air,  all 
of  which  are  heavy  and  gravitate,  and  so  may 
be  regarded  from  this  viewpoint  as  the  strict- 
ly cosmical  contribution  to  vegetal  life.  On 
the  other  hand  the  Plant  must  employ  and 
assimilate  heat,  light,  electricity,  and  chem- 
ism,  making  its  own  the  energies  which  de- 
gravitate  and  are  diacosmical.  How  the  Plant 
unites  in  its  process  of  assimilation  these 
two  basic  elements  of  Nature  (Cosmos  and 
Diacosmos)  and  makes  them  constituents  of 
Life  (Biocosmos)  is  to  be  seen  more  fully 
later.  Here,  then,  the  Inorganic,  in  its  two 
great  stages  is  transformed  into  the  Organic. 
Hence  also  organs  begin  to  appear  with  their 
organism,  which  is  now  the  vegetal,  the  first 
and  less  complete,  not  well  centered  (as  is  the 
animal).  It  has  no  sensation  (or  very  little) ; 
it  does  not  feel  itself,  or  determine  its  own 
process  but  is  determined  thereto  from  the 
outside.  Still  it  has  its  round  of  assimila- 
tion :  the  organs  give  out  their  energy  to  re- 
gain what  they  give  out. 

The  Plant  gets  its  food  and  its  force  from 
the  outside,  food  from  the  Earth  and  force 
from  the  Sun  as  radiant.  The  Animal  on  the 
contrary  gets  its  food  and  force  from  the  in- 


PLANT-LIFE—ASSIMILATION.  219 

side,  consuming  the  Plant  and  thus  assimilat- 
ing inwardly  what  has  been  already  assimi- 
lated outwardly  from  the  Cosmos  and  Dia- 
cosmos ;  that  is,  the  Animal  feeds  on  vegetal 
life  (and  certainly  on  some  animal  life  too). 
But  the  typical  animal  needs  also  the  outer 
elements  of  the  earth  (water  and  air)  as  well 
as  of  the  sun  (the  radiants  and  chemism) — 
needs  both  the  Inorganic  and  the  Organic. 

The  function  of  the  Plant,  therefore,  in 
Assimilation  is  to  transform  Unlife  in  its 
elemental  forms  to  Life,  that  is,  to  the  primal 
vegetal  Life.  Its  first  act  must  be  to  appro- 
priate and  impart  its  food — Alimentation; 
then  this  prepared  food  must  be  circulated 
through  the  body — Distribution ;  finally  there 
is  the  continual  repetition  of  the  Plant-form 
externally — Growth. 

The  twofold  character  of  Assimilation  in 
the  Plant  may  be  noted  further  in  its  two  op- 
posite directions:  downward  for  earth  with 
air  and  water  (cosmical),  upward  for  air 
and  for  light  and  the  radiants  specially  (dia- 
cosmical) .  The  two  extreme  organs  of  Assim- 
ilation (root  and  leaf)  direct  themselves  to- 
ward the  two  opposite  sides  of  the  inorganic 
universe,  seeking  to  bring  them  together  into 
the  living  individual,  or  into  the  unitary  pro- 
cess of  the  Biocosmos.  The  stage  of  Assimi- 
lation is,  accordingly,  the  stage  of  the  pitched 


220    •     THE  BIOCOSMOS— PARTICULARIZED. 

battle  of  the  Organic  with  Inorganic,  the  lat- 
ter being  in  its  two  main  forms,  which  are 
pursued  and  assailed  and  appropriated  by  the 
aforementioned  two  opposite  members  of  the 
Plant,  root  and  leaf,  which  show  in  their  m«any 
branchings  the  ceaseless  striving  to  get  at 
their  antagonists. 

1.  Alimentation..  This  in  general  starts 
with  the  Inorganic  in  its  two  forms,  matter 
(terrestrial)  and  energy  (solar),  and  trans- 
mutes them  into  the  Organic  in  its  earliest 
form  as  living  protoplasm.  It  must  be  con- 
fessed that  this  very  suggestive  process  which 
is  really  a  transition  from  Unlife  to  Life  is  by 
no  means  well  understood  in  modern  Bot- 
any. Evidently  the  two  constituents  of  the 
inorganic  world,  cosmical  and  diacosmical, 
matter  and  energy,  the  static  and  the  dynamic 
are  joined  together  and  made  to  live  through 
a  mediating  principle,  which  usually  is  said 
to  be  chlorophyll,  the  green  substance  in  the 
leaf  of  grfcen  plants,  and  in  other  parts  of  the 
vegetal  organism.  .This  life-giving  process, 
as  set  forth  in  the  recent  text-books,  bears  the 
very  inadequate  name  of  photosynthesis — in- 
adequate, since  there  must  be  also  a  thermo- 
synthesis,  and  an  electrosynthesis,  as  well  as 
chemism.  Indeed  a  chemical  decomposition 
takes  place,  that  of  carbon  dioxide  whose  oxy- 
gen is  given  off  into  the  air,  while  the  carbon 


PLANT-LIFE—ASSIMILATION.  221 

is  retained  and  unites  with  the  ascending 
water  to  form  the  so-called  carbohydrates  (as 
sugar,  starch,  and  also  the  proteids).  These 
are  known  as  organic  substances,  since  they 
are  products  of  life,  of  Nature's  own  labora- 
tory. Also  they  are  the  food-stuff  of  the 
Plant  manufactured  by  itself  out  of  the  afore- 
said raw  materials.  But  this  cooked  food  is 
still  to  be  digested  and  vitalized  into  what  is 
called  vegetal  protoplasm,  which  is  to  be  car- 
ried to  and  incorporated  with  every  living 
portion  of  the  Plant.  Such  is  the  general  out- 
come of  the  work  of  Alimentation,  which  may 
be  taken  as  the  first  stage  of  the  total  process 
of  Assimilation :  the  given  outer  elements  are 
transformed  into  a  living  food-supply,  and 
thus  assimilated  to  the  living  organism, 
though  not  yet  organized  into  it  actively. 

The  aliment  of  the  Plant  being  thus  ob- 
tained, it  must  next  be  distributed  through- 
out the  organism.  This  is  done  by  means  of 
a  distributing  circulation,  which  has  a  num- 
ber of  streams  running  through  the  entire 
vegetal  body  on  different  errands. 

2.  Distribution.  In  the  Plant  there  is  no 
central  heart  with  its  pumping  power  of  cir- 
culating the  blood ;  still  there  are  in  it  various 
kinds  of  movement  of  various  fluids.  The  as- 
cent of  the  sap  is  probably  best  known;  but 
botanists  also  speak  of  the  circulation  of  the 


222        THE  BIOCOSMOS— PARTICULARIZED. 

protoplasm,  which,  however,  must  first  be  ox- 
idized— decomposed  and  set  on  fire  by  oxygen 
taken  from  the  air.  This  is  the  act  of  Ees- 
piration,  for  Plants  in  their  way  breathe 
(through  the  st ornate s)  and  aerate  the  vegetal 
protoplasm.  That  is,  through  Kespiration, 
they  set  free  the  energy  which  results  from 
burning  their  stored  carbon,  turning  this 
again  into  the  carbon  dioxide  which  they  at 
first  decomposed  in  Alimentation  through  the 
so-called  photosynthesis.  In  the  one  case  the 
carbon  dioxide  was  taken  from  the  air  and 
decomposed,  in  the  other  case  it  was  recom- 
posed  and  sent  back  to  the  air.  Thus  Kes- 
piration undoes  the  work  of  Alimentation  in 
order  that  the  Organism  may  employ  for  its 
own  use  that  imprisoned  energy  which  came 
originally  from  the  Sun  with  its  diacosmical 
radiants.  Here  we  see  the  double  action  of 
the  Plant:  it  throws  off  oxygen  in  one  pro- 
cess and  takes  it  up  in  another ;  also  it  takes 
up  carbonic  oxide  in  one  process  and  throws 
it  off  in  another ;  thus  we  behold  a  twofold  and 
counter  round  of  circulation  of  these  two 
gases.  The  purpose  of  this  significant  double 
arrangement  is  to  catch  and  chain  up  first  the 
force  from  the  outside  universe  by  Alimenta- 
tion, and  then  to  loosen  it  and  to  distribute  it 
wherever  needed  in  the  Organism  by  circula- 
tion. 


PLANT-LIFE—ASSIMILATION.  223 

Likewise  there  is  known  to  be  a  double 
movement  of  water,  ascending  and  descend- 
ing. In  this  connection  is  to  be  noticed  Trans- 
piration, the  process  of  throwing  off  water  in 
the  form  of  vapor  from  the  surface  of  the 
Plant,  especially  from  the  leaves.  Thus  flow- 
ing streams  of  fluid  continually  rise  through 
the  Plant  like  an  artesian  spring,  though  the 
cause  of  this  uplift  is  still  under  discussion. 
On  the  other  hand  water  is  always  being  taken 
up  by  root  and  leaf. 

The  Plant  aliment  being  thus  seized  from 
the  outside  world,  cooked  and  distributed  to 
the  organs,  which  obtain  thereby  the  energy 
for  doing  all  this  work  (seizing,  cooking,  dis- 
tributing), what  next?  Does  the  Plant- 
organism  continue  to  make  the  same  old  vital 
round  when  it  is  once  done  growing?  Now 
the  fact  comes  to  light  that  the  Plant  in  a 
sense  never  gets  done  growing;  as  to  its  or- 
ganism it  is  ever  the  unfinished  and  unfinish- 
able,  yearly  the  exogen  adds  a  new  layer  to 
its  body  on  the  outside,  though  it  be  centuries 
old;  in  the  endogen  a  similar  repetition  oc- 
curs on  the  inside  (by  means  of  the  so-called 
vascular  bundles).  So  we  may  say  that  the 
Plant  is  ever  striving  to  get  beyond  itself, 
seeking  to  reach  an  end  by  continual  addi- 
tions to  itself.  Thus  it  seems  to  be  growing 
an  infinite  series.  About  this  growth  a  few 
words. 


224         THE  BIOC08M08— PARTICULARIZED. 

3.  Growth.  The  Plant,  having  shown  the 
ability  to  release  its  stored  energy  and  to  dis- 
tribute the  same  throughout  its  organism,  can 
now  grow,  push  beyond  its  given  bounds,  and 
thus  manifest  its  limit-transcending  impulse 
as  far  as  this  extends.  Some  Plants  keep  on 
reaching  out  beyond  the  preceding  annual 
limit,  increasing  in  height  and  girth  for  a 
millennium  and  more.  .  Still  the  organism 
cannot  break  over  its  typical  form  or  charac- 
ter ;  a  hickory  nut  will  not  spring  up  into  an 
oak  tree,  it  assimilates  itself  to  its  transmitted 
norm,  even  if  this  slowly  changes  from  gen- 
eration to  generation,  as  Darwin  has  shown. 
Of  course  there  has  evolved  an  enormous  di- 
versity of  Plant-life  in  the  many  millions  of 
years  that  may  lie  between  the  Bacterion  and 
California's  lofty  Sequoia,  which  is  prob- 
ably not  the  latest  vegetal  evolution  on  the 
globe.  Still  the  individual  specimen,  be  it 
large  or  small,  follows  the  norm  of  the  spe- 
cies; in  its  growth  it  realizes  its  foregone 
idea,  so  that  we  at  once  identify  it  as  the 
fulfilment  of  its  type  or  ideal  pattern.  Growth 
involves  also  the  self-movement  of  Plants, 
which,  however,  has  many  other  phases. 

Out  of  the  germ  the  organs  grow,  each  of 
which  likewise  attains  its  normal  limit.  The 
plant,  therefore,  organizes  itself  through 
growth,  differentiates  itself  into  its  co-oper- 


PLANT-LIFE—ASSIMILATION.  225 

ant  members  as  it  waxes  into  its  full  norm. 
Noteworthy  is  the  fact  that  the  Plant  has  the 
tendency  to  reproduce  the  organs  of  which 
it  has  been  deprived,  wherein  it  is  quite  dif- 
ferent from  the  animal,  at  least  the  higher 
ones.  Rootless  stems  will  send  out  new 
roots,  and  stemless  roots  will  put  forth  stem 
and  leaf.  This  indicates  the  lower  organiza- 
tion of  the  Plant,  of  which  each  part  is  able 
to  be  the  process  of  the  whole,  not  being  dif- 
ferentiated too  deeply  from  the  same.  There 
is  likewise  in  Plant-life  a  periodicity  of  many 
kinds,  in  part  externally  dependent  upon  day 
and  night,  the  cycle  of  the  seasons,  tempera- 
ture, etc.  But  Plant-life  has  its  inner  period- 
icity of  birth,  maturity  and  cessation  lasting 
a  few  hours  in  some  Algae  and  many  hund- 
reds, perhaps  thousands  of  years  in  some 
trees.  Here  again  the  vegetal  individual  as- 
similates itself  to  the  norm  of  the  duration 
of  its  species.  But  whence  comes  this  species 
which  seems  to  mould  each  plant  after  its 
foreordained  type?  On  this  question  a  large 
amount  of  recent  biology  has  turned. 

Through  growth  the  Plant  reveals  its  pro- 
pulsion to  attain  the  universal  form  of  its 
kind,  to  be  one  wdth  its  genetic  source;  this 
is  its  supreme  Assimilation.  But  it  remains 
a  striving  externally  directed;  the  concentric 
layers  of  the  oak,  yearly  added  one  after  the 


226        THE  BIOCOSMOS— PARTICULARIZED. 

other,  show  that  the  tree  has  a  mighty  aspira- 
tion for  something  beyond  its  reach  which  it 
seeks  by  paling  step  on  step;  every  year  it 
acknowledges  failure,  but  never  fails  to  make 
the  fresh  attempt  with  the  coming  spring.  Its 
organism  is  not  strictly  governed  from  with- 
in by  an  established  central  authority,  like 
the  developed  animal,  which  has  an  organ- 
controlling  organ  in  its  organism.  Such  self- 
direction  the  Plant  cannot  have  through  lack 
of  such  an  organic  center.  Indeed  those  ex- 
ternal concentric  layers  continually  added  to 
the  oak  are  pushing  outward  for  aught  which 
it  has  not  but  longs  for,  namely,  this  inner 
center  which  the  higher  animal  Life  pos- 
sesses. Thus  the  Plant  never  attains  its  end; 
if  it  did  it  would  no  longer  be  Plant ;  still  it 
never  gives  up  its  pursuit;  if  it  did,  that 
would  destroy  its  vegetal  character.  The 
Plant  has  been  made  the  symbol  of  many 
things;  but  its  best  symbolic  suggestion  is 
this  undying  aspiration,  ever  disappointed 
but  ever  revivifying.  So  that  maple  under 
my  window  is  sending  forth  an  eternal  sigh : 
"I  long  to  have  a  brain  like  you,  or  even  like 
your  dog." 

Plant  language,  however,  is  very  differently 
translated  by  different  translators,  and  so 
we  pass  on  to  say  that  Growth  is  the  highest 
stage  of  Assimilation  which  herein  not  only 


PLANT-LIFE— GENERATION.  227 

rehabilitates  old  tissues  and  organs,  but  re- 
produces new  ones  of  both  sorts.  Thus  even 
in  and  through  Assimilation  we  begin  to 
glimpse  the  fresh-born  individual.  The  an- 
nual layer  around  the  oak  from  top  to  bot- 
tom is  in  a  manner  a  new  tree  with  stem,  root, 
and  branch;  'still  it  embraces  its  maternal 
body  so  closely  that  it  cannot  separate  and  be 
an  independent  oak.  Thus  in  Growth  the 
Plant  is  continually  reproducing  itself  as  a 
part  of  itself;  it  re-bears  its  own  form  out- 
wardly but  not  inwardly,  and  encloses  itself 
in  this  new  external  form  of  which  it  remains 
the  internal  part.  Assimilation  has  complet- 
ed its  round  when  it  has  assimilated  the  outer 
world  not  only  into  the  old  given  organism 
but  into  a  new  one  which  includes  the  old.  So 
Assimilation  of  the  Plant  ha.s  largely  re-made 
what  it  started  with,  has  re-embodied  its  first 
body,  yet  as  a  part  of  that  body. 

But  the  next  step  is  the  reproduction  of  the 
new  individual  as  free,  completely  individ- 
uated, with  his  own  organism  distinct  from 
that  of  his  parent.  This  is  the  act  of  Gener- 
ation, which  is  now  to  find  its  place  in  the 
ordering  of  the  Plant-world. 

III.  THE  GENERATIVE  PROCESS  OF  PLANT- 
LIFE.  The  Plant  has  the  power  of  reproducing 
itself  not  only  in  parts  observable  in  Growth, 
but  also  as  a  whole — the  total  individual  re- 


228        THE  BIOCOSMOS— PARTICULARIZED. 

creates  itself  as  total.  Thus  Growth  from  its 
movement  of  expansion,  turns  back  to  the  be- 
ginning and  starts  the  Plant  over  again  in  a 
new  individual.  Such  is  in  general,  the  sweep 
out  of  Assimilation  into  Generation;  the  lin- 
ear tendency  we  may  conceive  bending  around 
to  the  circular.  Or  we  may  consider  the  pre- 
ceding transition  as  that  between  the  two 
sorts  of  vegetal  reproduction:  the  one  re- 
produces the  organism  already  given,  the 
other  reproduces  it  new-born;  or  we  may  say 
reproduces  its  reproduction.  Assimilative  is 
the  one  sort,  generative  the  other.  The  liv- 
ing individual  (here  as  Plant)  recreates  its 
life  and  starts  over  again,  transmitting  its 
creative  energy,  of  which  it  becomes  the  ve- 
hicle and  which  has  continued  through  all 
Plant-life,  yea  all  Life  in  the  Universe.  This 
persistence  of  genetic  energy  passing  from 
individual  to  individual  through  many  gen- 
erations is  the  germinal  or  reproductive  con- 
tinuity which  the  biologists  are  now  specially 
investigating.  Assimilative  reproduction  dies 
with  the  death  of  the  individual,  generative 
reproduction  may  be  deemed  relatively  im- 
mortal, being  transmitted  in  the  cell  or  cells 
(as  has  been  supposed)  of  the  primal  creative 
life-stuff  of  the  planet. 

We  are  also  to  see  that  the  Generative  Pro- 
cess of  the  Plant  returns  to  the  Formative, 


PLANT-LIFE— GENERATION.  229 

which  is  the  first  appearance  of  the  Plant  in 
its  Form  or  outer  manifestation.  Thus  the 
vegetal  cycle  is  completed,  the  last  Process 
goes  back  to  the  first  and  reproduces  that. 
The  physical  reality  of  this  round  can  be 
noted  in  the  seed  which  on  the  one  hand  is 
the  final  outcome  of  the  Generation,  but  on 
the  other  is  the  starting  point  of  the  Forma- 
tion of  the  individual  Plant.  The  seed  in  its 
round  thus  shows  the  vegetal  organism  re- 
turning into  itself  through  its  three  main 
Processes  (Formation,  Assimilation,  Gener- 
ation), and  thereby  completing  its  cycle  of 
life.  Both  have  something  very  significant  in 
common:  the  Plant-child  receives  from  its 
Plant-parent  the  ability  to  make  that  same 
vegetal  round  in  about  the  same  time,  start- 
ing and  ending  in  the  seed.  Such  a  power  is, 
therefore,  continuous  and  persists,  being  su- 
preme over  the  rise,  bloom,  and  cessation  of 
the  individual  Plant,  and  therein  suggesting 
a  limited  immortality. 

The  thought  also  should  be  dwelt  upon  that 
there  is  a  recurrence  of  the  same  Plant-form 
in  the  main,  or  of  the  ideal  model  after  which 
the  organism  seems  to  shape  itself.  We  may 
conceive  it  as  the  universal  or  creative  type 
of  the  Plant,  which  is  always  individualizing 
itself  in  the  special  instances;  it  has  been 
named  the  idea  matrix  of  all  members  of  the 


230        THE  BIOCOSMOS— PARTICULARIZED. 

same  species  (or  better,  genus,  which  is  con- 
nected with  genesis,  generation,  etc.,  in  that 
primordial  Aryan  root  gen  to  beget).  When 
we  say  that  a  certain  Plant  belongs  to  this  or 
that  species,  there  hovers  before  ns  doubtless 
vaguely  the  ideal  norm  thereof,  to  which  we 
mentally  compare- it  and  under  which  we  sub- 
sume it.  Instinctively  we  seek  for  this  gen- 
etic archetype  which  manifests  itself  in  indi- 
vidual Plants  and  orders  them,  being  the  true 
source  of  classification.  Species  are  indeed 
many  and  the  Plant-norm  has  diversified  it- 
self prodigiously  in  the  past  ages;  still  it  is 
relatively  the  persistent  principle  in  the  veg- 
etal organism,  though  it  too  be  subject  to  a 
gradual  evolution. 

With  the  development  of  its  Generative 
Process,  the  Plant  stops  its  growing  outward, 
and  turns  back  inward  upon  itself  as  it  were, 
and  rounds  out  its  total  growth  into  the  seed 
which  contains  potentially  the  whole  Plant, 
concentrating  the  latter 's  previous  forthright 
energy  toward  special  parts  and  projecting 
the  same  into  a  new  entire  individual.  It  is 
true  that  the  old  Plant,  after  a  period  of  rest 
and  recuperation,  will  start  again  its  growth 
by  accretion,  for  that  is  the  vegetal  character. 
The  oldest  tree  continues  adding  its  annual 
layer  of  new  sapwood;  it  never  gets  its 
growth,  it  always  remains  young  in  a  part, 


PLANT-LIFE— GENERATION.  231 

and  fails  not  in  reproductive  power.  The  an- 
imal is  different,  being  more  internally  direct- 
ed, not  growing  into  old-age  by  outward  addi- 
tions of  youth  to  his  senile  body. 

Analogies  between  Plant  and  Animal  have 
been  often  drawn.  Oken  deemed  the  brain 
of  the  Plant  to  be  the  flower  with  head  erect 
in  the  air.  Others  have  maintained  that  the 
vegetal  head  was  rooted  in  the  soil  where  was 
the  mouth  taking  its  food  and  drink.  Really, 
however,  it  is  contrary  to  the  nature  of  the 
Plant  to  have  a  central  brain  in  control ;  rath- 
er each  part  or  organ  has  its  center  and  can 
become  the  total  Plant.  Interesting  is  the 
comparison  of  the  sexual  division  of  the  one 
flower  into  stamen  and  pistil  to  the  Ego  sep- 
arating itself  into  subject  and  object  which 
reunite.  A  kind  of  outer  self  is  thus  the  Gen- 
erative Process  of  the  Plant,  as  the  Process 
of  the  Ego  is  generative  of  the  new  thought. 
Undoubtedly  there  is  a  psychical  side  in  the 
Plant,  as  there  is  everywhere  in  Life,  and 
also  in  Nature.  The  ideal  continuity  of  the 
vegetal  type  is  in  me,  or  subjective ;  but  it  is 
also  in  the  Plant  or  objective;  if  it  were  not 
mine  too,  I  could  not  know  it.  My  Psyche  is 
what  communes  with  and  recognizes  the 
Psyche  of  Nature. 

The  Plant,  since  it  is  quite  autonomous  in 
its  organs  and  thus  relatively  multicentral, 


232        THE  BIOCOSMOS— PARTICULARIZED. 

has  naturally  many  centers  of  Generation; 
each  part  or  organ  in  fact  can  reproduce  the 
whole  individual.  Hence  rises  the  question 
about  the  different  values  of  these  different 
kinds  of  vegetal  propagation.  Even  the  sex- 
ual process  of  the  Plant  is  practically  confined 
to  one  individual,  though  there  be  direcious 
fertilization.  Thus  vegetal  Generation  never 
quite  frees  itself  from  vegetal  Assimilation, 
both  being  largely  in  the  same  organism  and 
therein  organically  connected.  To  the  com- 
plete sexual  diremption  of  Nature  the  Plant 
never  attains,  though  striving  for  it,  and  giv- 
ing outer  manifestations  of  it  in  the  parts  of 
the  flower.  Vegetal  Generation  remains  im- 
plicit in  the  one  individual,  never  getting  fully 
explicit  in  the  two  individuals  (like  the  typical 
animal).  So  the  Plant  as  generative  simply 
returns  upon  itself,  and  makes  itself  another 
like  itself  (or  nearly  so),  for  the  offspring, 
being  thus  limited  to  the  one  individual  in 
origin,  must  incline  to  be  one-strained  (not 
two-strained,  as  the  animal) .  But  the  various 
kinds  of  propagation  of  Plants  will  differ  just 
in  this  regard,  and  Nature  will  help  break 
down  the  vegetal  limit,  as  in  the  previously 
mentioned  case  of  Mutation.  In  a  sense  we 
can  say  that  the  Animal  is  not  so  self-suffi- 
cient as  the  Plant,  since  in  its  case,  male  and 
female  are  not  one  individual;  but  just  this 


PLANT-LIFE—GENERATION.  233 

limitation  is  the  source  of  the  Animal's  great- 
er diversity  and  higher  character.  Practical- 
ly, then,  the  Plant-world  is  born  and  stays 
hermaphroditic,  though  with  many  variations 
from  low  to  high — the  highest  being  the  outer 
appearance  or  floral  realization  of  the  sexual 
idea. 

Accordingly  the  Generative  Process  of 
Plant-life  we  shall  look  at  in  the  following 
stages:  single  Generation  (asexual),  double 
Generation  (sexual),  total  Generation  (the 
entire  line  of  Plant-life  generated  in  time  and 
at  present  existent).  Thus  we  may  catch  a 
glimpse  of  the  original  Plant-norm  taking  on 
its  millionfold  shapes,  or  perchance  the  veg- 
etal prototype  clothing  itself  with  reality. 

1.  Single  Generation  of  Plant-life.  We 
may  repeat  once  more  that  vegetal  Genera- 
tion is  not  centralized,  just  as  little  as  the 
whole  organism  of  the  Plant  is  centralized  in 
one  organ.  Both  facts  manifest  the  same 
basic  vegetal  character — lack  of  organic 
unity,  be  it  in  the  sphere  of  self-re- 
production or  of  self-direction.  Each  mem- 
ber can  become  the  center  of  the  whole,  which 
is  thus  largely  decentered.  Generation  is  ac- 
cordingly, multicentral  in  the  Plant,  though 
confined  to  the  various  parts  of  one  organism ; 
each  part  under  proper  conditions  is  endowed 
vrith  generative  power.  That  is,  Generation 


234         THE  BIOC08M08— PARTICULARIZED. 

in  its  present  aspect  is  of  one  kind  (asexual), 
and  springs  from  a  single  organ  or  part  of  a 
vegetal  individual.  Thus  we  name  it  Single 
Generation  (uni-parental).  Hence  it  is  also 
called  monogenetic,  which  word  hints  its 
derivation  from  one  parent  and  not  from  two. 
Another  term  applied  to  this  sort  of  Gener- 
ation is  the  word  vegetative,  an  unhappy 
usage,  since  digenetic  or  bi-parental  propaga- 
tion belongs  also  to  the  vegetable,  even  if  in 
a  more  superficial  way;  while  on  the  other 
hand  monogenetic  or  vegetative  Generation 
can  be  seen  in  the  lower  animals. 

Still  the  reader  who  loves  the  thought  of 
the  Plant  as  well  as  the  sight  of  it,  will  not 
fail  to  reflect  that  its  genetic  continuity  is 
transmitted  through  single  '  Generation  as 
well  as  through  double.  The  Plant-norm  is 
perpetuated  in  one  way  as  well  as  in  another ; 
the  specific  idea  or  .type  keeps  re-embodying 
itself  in  the  generative  process,  though  the 
individual  continues  to  perish.  The  Plant 
hands  down  two  things :  its  living  but  evanes- 
scent  finite  shape,  and  also  its  eternal  power 
of  shaping  itself  anew — its  mortal  and  its 
immortal  portions.  The  individual  vanishes, 
but  individuation  eternizes.  The  product  is 
mortal,  the  creative  energy  is  immortal. 
This  latter  seems  to  have  been  given  at  the 
start,  from  the  original  genetic  sources  and  to 


PLANT-LIFE— GENERATION.  235 

be  still  preserved  in  the  Earth-life,  from 
which  the  Plant  draws  it  directly  for  gener- 
ating the  individual.  Now  this  means  of 
Generation  in  the  Plant  is  not  concentrated 
into  one  kind,  but  varies  organically.  Still 
the  Plant's  reproduction  is  essentially  limit- 
ed to  the  one  parent,  though  often  with  strong 
protests  which  indicate  at  least  its  aspira- 
tion for  a  higher  birth. 

Accordingly  the  reproduction  of  the  vegetal 
individual  can  take  place  in  a  variety  of 
ways  without  the  conjugation  of  the  floral 
sexes,  stamen  and  pistil.  Indeed  it  lies  in  the 
character  of  the  Plant,  that  each  part,  prop- 
erly separated  and  environed,  will  produce 
the  whole.  This  fact  is  "seen  in  the  develop- 
ment of  layers,  cuttings,  grafts ;  bulbs,  buds, 
rhizomes,  even  leaves  will  propagate  the 
entire  organism  of  which  they  are  members ; 
in  fine  root,  stem,  and  leaf,  will  reproduce  one 
another  and  all  together  in  the  total  Plant. 
Assimilative  reproduction  may  be  halted  in 
its  outward  repetition  and  turned  about  into 
generative  reproduction;  the  growth  of  one 
part  may  be  transformed  into  the  growth  of 
all  the  parts.  Each  organ  of  the  Plant  is  not 
fully  centralized  and  subordinated  to  a  com- 
mon head,  but  has  the  tendency  to  be  autono- 
mous (like  the  cluster  of  the  ancient  Greek 
city-states).  Thus  the  one  organism  easily 


236         THE  BIOCOSMOS— PARTICULARIZED. 

breaks  up  into  as  many  organisms  as  there 
are  organs;  even  the  single  cell  has  that 
power  in  certain  Plants  (possibly  in  all,  if  the 
right  conditions  be  found). 

Such  is  the  asexual  propagation  of  the  veg- 
etal individual,  whereby  the  one  parent  is  sim- 
ply repeated  in  its  progeny;  the  same  body 
reproduces  itself  indefinitely,  a  kind  of  quan- 
titative repetition  of  the  one  unit.  Still  even 
in  this  seemingly  uniform  reproduction  sur- 
prising variations  may  occur  and  have  been 
recorded,  indicating  that  also  in  the  vegetal 
body  far-off  ancestral  traits  can  lie  dormant 
till  favorable  conditions  may  cause  it  again  to 
spring  forth,  to  the  surprise  of  the  botanist. 
DeVries  maintained  that  vegetal  variation 
was  not  the  slow  movement  which  Darwin  so 
strongly  emphasized  but  might  be  sudden  and 
catastrophic,  producing  a  new  species  at  a 
single  leap.  Still  asexual  generation  is  in 
gieneral,  repetitive  of  the  parental  form  which 
it  originates,  and  monotypal  (hence  the  use 
of  the  word  mono  genetic).  But  the  sexual 
dualism  is  also  found  in  Plant-life. 

There  is  an  old  discussion  concerning  the 
sexuality  of  Plants,  which  was  at  one  time 
questioned.  Then  again  this  was  accepted, 
but  regarded  as  quite  superfluous,  since  its 
place  could  be  filled  by  so  many  substitutes. 
But  hybridisation,  especially  the  experiments 


PLANT-LIFE—GENERATION.  237 

of  Mendel,  have  shown  strikingly  heredity  in 
the  Plant  from  both  sides.  Also  its  sexual 
propagation  brings  forth  characters  not  ob- 
tainable by  other  methods.  Still  in  the  Plant 
sex  has  by  no  means  reached  its  destiny.  It 
has,  however,  something  to  say,  to  which  we 
may  now  listen. 

2.  Double  Generation  of  Plant-life.  The 
reproduction  of  the  Plant  is  now  b'i-parental, 
although  the  two  parents  may  not  be  two  sep- 
arate individuals,  but  two  sexual  organs  or 
two  sets  of  organs  in  the  one  organism. 
(Hence  called  also  digenetic  in  sundry  bo- 
tanical books).  Thus  living  Nature  has  be- 
gun to  manifest  in  outward  shapes  her  deep- 
est dualism,  that  of  sex,  which,  however, 
drops  back  into  unity  in  the  individual  off- 
spring, though  the  latter  may  become  many. 
Our  Biocosmos  has  pushed  forward  to  its 
supreme  separation,  which  it  is  always  over- 
coming, yet  always  reproducing.  For  the 
living  individual  is  born  with  the  sexual  di- 
remption  upon  him ;  the  higher  he  is,  the  pro- 
founder  the  chasm,  which  he  still  has  to 
bridge  in  order  to  continue  his  kind.  But 
floral  sexuality  is  the  first  quite  playful,  inno- 
cent appearance  of  sex.  We  might  call  it 
paradisaical. 

Two  kinds  of  cells,  male  and  female  now 
appear  in  the  Plant,  neither  of  which  (as  a 


238         THE  BIOCOSMOS— PARTICULARIZED. 

rule)  is  capable  of  separate  development,  but 
must  be  fused  together  in  a  common  nucleus, 
from  which  springs  the  seed  and  thence  the 
new  Plant.  One  may  well  ask:  What  is  the 
purpose,  of  this  second  more  complicated, 
more  circuitous  Generation? 

In  the  first  place  two  parental  characters 
begin  to  unite  themselves  in  the  offspring — 
paternal  and  maternal.  Even  though  the 
stamen  and  pistil  be  of  the  same  flower,  and 
hence  of  the  same  root,  stem,  branch,  and 
leafage,  the  seed  combines  the  two-fold  ten- 
dency of  all  life,  that  of  father  and  mother, 
which  exists  united  in  every  individual  Plant 
and  comes  to  expression  in  the  double  floral 
organs — the  supreme  genetic  manifestation 
of  the  vegetal  organism.  Then  the  seed  prop- 
er, the  great  storehouse  of  food  both  for 
Plant  and  Animal,  is  the  distinctive  product 
of  sexual  Generation  as  contrasted  with  asex- 
ual, which  often  has  as  its  object  to  call  forth 
the  seed-making  act  with  its  fruit.  More- 
over the  seed  is  Nature's  own  work  of  self- 
completion  in  the  round  of  vegetal  organiza- 
tion, which  is  concentrated  in  the  seed.  Rel- 
atively the  asexual  process  is  lower  organi- 
cally, or  more  artificial  and  accidental  in  the 
higher  Plants.  Also  we  have  the  right  to 
think  that  the  vast  variety  of  the  vegetal 
world  springs  largely  from  sexual  Genera- 


PLANT-LIFE—GENERATION.  239 

tion,  in  which  the  children  inheriting  from 
both  parents,  differ  from  each.  Gradually 
thus  the  grand  diversity  of  Plant-life  has 
evolved  and  is  still  evolving. 

Now  comes  the  curious  fact  that  the  flower 
seeks  to  differentiate  its  two  sexes  as  much 
as  possible  for  the  purpose  of  fertilization. 
Often  the  pollen  is  barren  on  its  own  flower, 
but  fertile  on  a  different  flower  of  the  same 
species.  To  some  Orchids  their  own  pollen 
is  poisonous,  and  self-pollination  causes 
death.  Peculiar  contrivances  of  Nature 
have  been  pointed  out  by  which  the  pistil 
avoids'  its  own  stamen.  The  two  organs 
often  mature  at  different  times  so  that  each 
seeks  its  counterpart  not  at  home  but  else- 
where in  another  flower  (the  so-called  dichog- 
amy). Again,  some  Plants  produce  on  the 
same  stalk  both  sorts  of  flowers,  the  self- 
pollined  and  the  other-pollined,  the  first  be- 
ing smaller,  lower,  seemingly  less  developed 
than  the  second.  Finally  there  is  the  com- 
plete separation  of  the  two  sexes  into  two 
different  households  (dioecious),  each  sex 
having  its  own  Plant.  Pollination  now  oc- 
curs through  more  external  and  more  remote 
means — wind,  water,  birds,  insects,  even 
snails,  etc. 

The  loves  of  the  flowers  have  been  celebrat- 
ed by  poets  and  lovers;  but  quite  as  certain 


240        THE  BIOCOSMOS— PARTICULARIZED. 

are  their  antipathies.  It  seems  that  the  whole 
flower-world  has  the  bent  to  separate  the 
sexes  as  far  as  possible  externally  by  dis- 
tance and  internally  (we  may  suppose)  by 
character.  The  stamen  on  a  different  tree 
must  be  different  from  the  stamen  on  the 
same  tree  and  in  the  same  flower  with  its 
pistil,  though  both  trees  belong  to  one  spe- 
cies. Heredity  has  had  a  far  wider  field  for 
its  development  in  the  first  case.  The  flower 
appears  averse,  like  man  to  the  marriage  of 
sister  and  brother,  though  both  flower  and 
man  have  sometimes  permitted  it. 

It  has  been  noticed  that  the  very  lowest 
plants,  some  of  the  Algae  and  also  the  Bac- 
terion,  though  propagated  ordinarily  by  the 
simplest  fission,  break  out  often  into  what 
resembles  the  sexual  organization,  even  if 
this  be  of  little  or  no  use  to  the  Plant.  But 
thus  it  shows  its  impulse.  We  may  call  it  a 
longing  for  the  completed  sexual  form  of  it- 
self, which  comes  to  realization  only  in  the 
higher  plants,  yea,  in  the  higher  animals,  for 
the  Plant  never  fully  transcends  its  asexual 
generative  limitation.  But  in  its  striving  for 
such  an  end  it  leaves  a  long  line  of  shapes 
graduated  by  their  approach  toward  the  per- 
fect flower,  which  is  always  a  generative 
manifestation,  ending  in  the  seed.  To  be 
sure,  the  perfect  flower  is  still  a  problem; 


PLANT-LIFE—GENERATION.  241 

possibly  it  is  yet  to  be  evolved,  not  so  much 
by  Nature  as  through  man's  agency.  The 
crossing  of  species  and  even  genera,  for  the 
purpose  of  improving  the  breed,  has  become 
a  significant  branch  of  the  vegetal  Biocosmos 
cultivated  by  persons  whose  genius  seems  to 
be  in  a  born  intimacy  with  the  creative  Plant- 
type.  Some  men  are  apparently  endowed 
with  flower-souls  so  sympathetic  that  they  can 
elevate  and  partly  humanize  the  vegetal  or- 
ganism (so  we  may  consider  the  Dutchman 
DeVries,  the  Swede  Hjalmar  Nilsson,  and  the 
supereminent  one,  the  American  Luther,  Bur- 
bank  of  California).  Far-reaching  indeed  is 
the  commingling  of  breeds  (hybridisation) ; 
through  it  perchance  we  are  on  the  path  to 
the  Super-plant.  Nor  can  we  omit  the  reflec- 
tion that  in  a  similar  way  the  commingling  of 
the  human  races,  of  course  with  proper  se- 
lection, is  to  evolve  the  perfect  specimen  of 
manhood,  that  Super-man,  about  whom  we 
hear  a  good  deal  of  prophecy  in  these  days, 
and  with  whom  must  come  of  course  the 
Super-woman.  Possibly  such  a  Plant  will  be 
required  as  the  food  for  such  a  Man,  so  that 
both  will  appear  together.  Not  quite  so  il- 
lusory seems  that  educated  edible  spineless 
cactus  of  Burbank,  which  is  to  turn  Earth's 
deserts  into  a  garden  and  double  the  food- 
producing  capacity  of  our  globe. 


242        THE  BIOC08MOS— PARTICULARIZED. 

But  from  such  speculative  outlooks,  which 
have  their  rights,  we  may  turn  to  the  actual 
Plant-world  as  it  unrolls  before  us,  or  rather 
mounts  from  the  humblest  form  to  the  high- 
est. 

3.  Total  Generation  of  Plant-life.  Evolu- 
tion has  left  its  emphatic  impress  on  Botany 
as  on  the  other  sciences.  One  result  is  that 
the  entire  Plant-world  is  graded  upward  on 
an  evolutionary  line  which  has  a  bottom,  but 
seemingly  no  top.  The  foot  of  the  ladder  in- 
deed rests  upon  or  rather  pushes  down  into 
the  primordial  life-stuff  (Protobioticon) 
which,  though  hypothetical,  is  the  necessary 
pre-requisite  and  creative  source  of  all  suc- 
ceeding Life,  vegetal  and  animal.  For  it  is 
the  germinal  fountain-head  of  living  individ- 
uation,  the  original  home  of  all  vital  forms, 
even  of  the  smallest  cell,  which  comes  forth 
already  organized  from  this  elemental  plastic 
reservoir  of  living  things.  Here  lies  the 
transition  from  the  Inorganic  to  the  Organic, 
into  which  the  whple  science  of  biological  evo- 
lution plunges  backward,  as  its  indispensable 
postulate,  even  if  speculative.  Only  Psyche 
can  say  anything  about  it  as  yet,  though 
Physis  is  also  there  and  will  in  time  get  to 
talking  about  itself,  voiced  of  course  by  the 
scientist. 

This  same  elemental  life-stuff  is  the  arena 


PLANT-LIFE—GENERATION.  243 

as  well  as  the  origin  of  the  primal  differenti- 
ation into  Plant  and  Animal,  which  seems  to 
occur  with  the  transition  from  pre-cellular 
Life  into  cellular.  This  stage  is  still  theoreti- 
cal, the  coercive  demand  of  thought;  yet  in 
the  earliest  organisms  it  becomes  almost  vis- 
ible. For  instance,  the  slime-mold  known  in 
science  as  Myxomycetes,  sometimes  classed  as 
an  animal  and  sometimes  as  a  plant,  and 
sometimes  as  neither,  appears  to  be  one.  of 
the  living  things  nearest  the  point  of  bifur- 
cation into  the  two  kingdoms.  It  is  primi- 
tively cellular  or  seems  to  be  becoming  so; 
its  very  diversity  would  indicate  a  lack  of  in- 
dividuation  in  such  semi-organic  material, 
there  being  at  least  300  species  according  to 
DeBary.  Such  is  the  next  neighbor  to  the 
original  life-slime  on  its  way  from  Unlife  to 
Life — a  kind  of  neutral  or  double  plant-ani- 
mal (Phytozoon)  which  we  may  take  as  the 
best  instance  of  this  transitional  stage.  For- 
mation, Assimilation  and  Generation,  which 
become  so  distinctive  as  the  bifurcating  lines 
of  Plant  and  Animal  evolve,  quite  blend  to- 
gether in  these  early  protoplasmic  shapes  just 
getting  individuated. 

The  present  field  has  long  attracted  the 
attention  of  biologists  who  have  given  to  it 
various  names.  The  best  known  designation 
is  probably  that  of  Haeckel  who  calls  the-se 


244        THE  BIOCOSMOS— PARTICULARIZED. 

neutrals  Protista  (an  insufficient  rubric  by 
the  way,  since  it  applies  to  non-vital  things 
as  well).  Moreover  it  is  sometimes  called 
the  third  kingdom  of  Life  out  of  which  the 
other  two  fork.  Now  this  pivotal  parting  of 
the  ways  is  what  we  are  next  to  see,  if  it  be 
possible.  In  other  words  the  double-natured 
Phytozoa  are  to  split  into  their  two  elemental 
constituents,  which  are  named  the  Protophyta 
and  the  Protozoa,  or  the  first  Plants  and  the 
first  Animals.  The  latter  line  of  Life-forms 
we  shall  pick  up  hereafter,  when  we  come  to 
the  animal  world.  Here,  however,  we  may 
add  that  the  two  samples  of  earliest  bifurca- 
tion are  usually  considered  to  be  the  Bac- 
terion  as  first  plant  and  the  Amoeba  as  first 
animal,  both  of  them  moving  almost  on  par- 
allel lines  of  evolution.  Thus  Biology  takes 
its  double  start  in  many  a  text-book  and  re- 
mains double  to  the  end. 

But  having  gotten  our  first  Plant  and  with 
it  the  first  faint  indication  of  the  Plant-norm 
(Protophyte),  how  shall  we  organize  the 
overwhelming  multiplicity  of  the  Plant- 
world?  Perhaps  the  best  start  in  running  an 
organic  line  is  to  divide  (after  De  Condolle) 
the  entire  mass  of  vegetation  into  the  non- 
vascular 'and  the  vascular  (without  and  with 
circulatory  organs  for  carrying  fluids)  even 
if  we  have  later  to  change  partly  this  divis- 


PLANT-LIFE—GENERATION.  245 

ion.  This  is  the  greatest  node  in  the  vegetal 
kingdom,  often  called  the  widest  chasm  in  it 
by  botanists,  and  it  lies  between  the  Mosses 
(Bryophytes)  and  the  Ferns  (Pterido- 
phytes).  In  the  Formative  Proce-ss  it  is  the 
transition  to  the  leaf,  stem  and  root  of  the 
Plant  which  have  not  yet  been  differentiated 
in  the  previous  forms — Algae,  Fungi,  Mosses. 
But  more  specially  an  inner  vascular  system 
appears  for  the  purpose  of  distributing  food 
and  fluids  through  the  organism — all  of  which 
means  a  great  change  in  the  Assimilative 
Process.  In  the  Generative  Process  there  is 
also  a  considerable  advance,  as  we  see  in  the 
fern-leaf  which  bears  the  spores,  the  latter  re- 
peating the  embryology  of  the  thallus  and  the 
moss  in  its  development.  Though  occurring 
far  down  among  the  less  showy,  because 
flowerless,  crytogams  (now  a  rejected  title  in 
botany)  this  is  the  largest  leap  in  the  Plant- 
world  proper,  though  probably  the  gap  will 
be  lessened  by  fresh  discoveries. 

For  the  sake  of  a  deeper  synthesis  of  liv- 
ing Nature  we  may  compare  the  present  di- 
vision of  Plants  into  non-vascular  and  vas- 
cular with  division  of  animals  into  non- 
vertebrates  and  vertebrates.  The  corres- 
pondence is  striking,  and  has  been  repeatedly 
noted,  while  the  attempts  at  bridging  the 
chasm  have  been  various  and  are  still  going 


246        THE  BIOCOSMOS— PARTICULARIZED. 

on.  But  the  prime  difficulty  in  both  cases 
lies  with  the  first  designation  which  is  merely 
negative  (non,  not) ;  hence  the  strong  effort 
to  bring  the  non-vascular  realm  into  a  posi- 
tive order.  Thus  arises  the  division,  quite 
general  in  today's  classification,  of  the  non- 
vascular  Plants  into  Thallophytes  (Thallus- 
plants)  and  Bryophytes  (Moss-plants),  both 
of  which  are  antecedent  stages  of  the  Fern- 
plants  (Pteridophytes).  But  the  latter  and 
the  whole  succeeding  higher  Plant-life  are 
vascular,  that  is,  have  true  organs;  their 
cells  have  reached  the  point  of  an  associated 
cell-organization.  A  thallus  is  the  primitive 
Plant  which  is  not  yet  differentiated  into 
stem,  root  and  leaf,  though  it  often  shows 
the  strong  impulse  to  put  forth  these  mem- 
bers ;  it  is  a  lump  of  life  unformed  but  trying 
to  form  itself,  in  which  the  Formative  Pro- 
cess of  the  Plant  is  implicit,  not  yet  realized, 
but  struggling.  The  Thallophytes  make  a 
large  group  with  many  species,  which  take  all 
sorts  of  shapes  su'ggestive  of  the  definite  or- 
gans of  the  higher  Plants.  The  chief  interest 
of  the  thallus  is  that  it  is  prophetic  of  the 
whole  coming  vegetal  kingdom,  being  a  piece 
of  plastic  material  in  whose  manifold  vari- 
ations are  foreshadowed  (by  the  artist 
Psyche)  the  future  shapes  of  the  Plant-world. 
The  two  chief  classes  of  Thallophytes  are  the 


PLANT-LIFE— GENERATION.  £47 

Algae,  green  with  chlorophyll  and  hence  cap- 
able of  preparing  their  own  food,  and  the 
Fungi  which  have  no  chlorophyll  and  hence 
are  parasitic  on  other  organisms.  The  fa- 
mous Bacterion  is  a  Thallophyte,  a  fungus 
parasite,  unicellular,  capable  of  enormous 
multiplication  by  simple  fission,  and  in  some 
of  its  forms  is  the  smallest  of  extant  organ- 
isms, being  unseen  by  the  microscope  though 
known  to  exist  as  a  cause  of  disease  which 
may  be  counteracted  by  antidotes. 

So  much  for  the  thallus,  that  prophetic 
little  blob  of  life-slime,  the  primal  Plant  pre- 
figuring in  its  way  all  the  rest,  being  too  the 
individuated  starting-point  of  the  whole  line 
of  vegetal  evolution,  as  far  as  science  now 
sees.  The  next  great  group,  the  Mosses  (Bry- 
ophytes)  still  keep  the  thallus,  but  in  a  state 
of  decided  transition,  especially  as  regards 
the  Generative  Process.  For  sex  now  begins 
with  organs,  male  and  female  (antheridium 
and  archegonium),  yet  accompanied  with  a 
sexless  individual.  Here  the  curious  fact  ap- 
pears: the  sexual  produces  the  asexual  and 
the  asexual  produces  the  sexual — which  fact 
is  known  as  alternation  of  generations.  This 
dual  Generative  Process  is  very  significant, 
reaching  forward  to  the  permanently  sexed 
higher  Plant,  and  then  dropping  back  to  the 
more  or  less  simple  fissiparism  of  the  Thallo- 


248         THE  BIOCOSMOS— PARTICULARIZED. 

phyte.  So  we  may  regard  the  Mosses  (Bry- 
ophytes)  as  the  dual  or  separative  stage  of 
the  Plant-world,  judged  by  the  highest  cri- 
terion of  its  permanent  existence,  namely 
Generation.  It  will  be  noticed  that  the  Gener- 
ative Process  is  adopted  as  the  supreme 
standard  for  ordering  the  ascending  evolu- 
tion of  Plant-life;  since  the  introduction  of 
this  method,  Botany  has  taken  a  new  depart- 
ure. 

But  now  we  must  make  a  fresh  transition, 
namely  to  the  third  stage  of  the  vegetal  king- 
dom. Here  the  striking  outer  manifestation 
is  the  appearance  of  the  corm  as  the  Plant- 
unit  of  form,  instead  of  the  thallus  which  has 
prevailed  in  both  the  preceding  divisions 
(Thallophytes  and  Bryophytes).  What  is  the 
significance  of  the  corm  in  this  total  evolution 
of  the  Plant-world!  It  means  that  the  fun- 
damental vegetal  form  has  now  come  to  man- 
ifestion  in  its  triple  members — stem,  root  and 
leaf — and  will  stay  through  to  the  end.  The 
thallus  had  no  such  differentiation,  though  it 
showed  many  pushes  toward  it,  many  prophe- 
cies of  it,  many  an  impulse  to  reach  it — but 
on  the  whole  in  vain.  At  last  the  corm  comes 
forth  quite  fully  formed  in  its  three  members, 
though  it  too  will  evolve  a  good  deal  in  the 
future.  Still  it  remains  and  thus  gives  a 
chief  criterion  for  the  third  and  last  grand 


PLANT-LIFE—GENERATION.  249 

division  of  Plants— the  vascular  Cormo- 
phytes  (or  the  corm-plants).  It  may  be  here 
added  that  the  corm  in  its  present  sense  is 
an  explication  and  fulfilment  of  the  thallus 
which  is  the  first  stage  already  considered; 
to  this  we  may  conceive  it  as  a  return,  which 
is  also  an  unfolding  of  it  to  its  purposive  end; 
that  is,  the  corm  realizes  and  fixes  to  per- 
sistence the  many  fleeting  intimations  of 
stem,  root  and  leaf,  which  are  found  scatter- 
ed through  the  numerous  varieties  of  the 
thallus.  In  fact  Nature  has  everywhere  these 
prophetic  hints,  and  the  whole  of  it  it;  one 
great  prophecy  of  the  completed  Psyche :  such 
is  truly  its  poetic  side. 

The  word  corm  in  the  foregoing  sense  was 
first  employed  by  Endlicher,  though  it  had 
been  used  previously  in  Botany  with  a  differ- 
ent meaning.  In  Greek  it  signifies  literally 
a  stem,  with  branches  and  roots  lopped  off, 
which  therefore  belong  to  it  naturally.  The 
term  with  its  group  is  approved  by  the  fa- 
mous German  botanist  and  writer,  Professor 
Strasburger  of  Bonn,  in  his  text  treating 
of  general  morphology,  but  is  strangely 
omitted  by  him  in  the  place  where  it  is  most 
needed,  namely  in  the  systematic  ordering  of 
the  Plant-world.  A  puzzling  omission,  yea 
inconsistency  of  the  learned  scientist,  but  not 
unparalleled.  The  demarkation  of  this  su- 


250        THE  BIOCOSMOS— PARTICULARIZED. 

preme  group,  or  even  the  need  of  it  seems 
not  yet  to  have  penetrated  our  Anglo-Saxon 
botanical  brains,  English  and  American. 

The  outcome,  however,  we  may  now  put  to- 
gether: the  total  Generation  of  Plant-life 
shows  three  grand  divisions — Thallophytes, 
Bryophytes,  and  Cormophytes;  these  also 
form  a  process  together  in  which  we  may 
well  catch  a  gleam  of  Psyche  as  the  ultimate 
orderer,  who  shows  herself  in  the  largest 
sweeps  and  likewise  in  the  minutest  cells,  of 
Nature. 

The  Cormophytes  (De  Candolle's  Vascu- 
lares)  henceforth  form  the  center  of  botanical 
interest,  and  they  too  have  a  subdivision, 
which  also  is  seen  to  be  threefold.  These  are 
the  Pteridophytes  (Ferns  in  which  the  seeds 
or  spores  are  developed  but  not  yet  separ- 
ated from  the  leaf) ;  the  Gymnosperms  (in 
which  the  seeds  are  separated  from  the  leaf, 
but  unenclosed) ;  the  Angiosperms  (in  which 
the  seeds  are  enclosed  in  their  distinct  house 
or  seed-vessel).  It' is  evident  that  here  the 
stress  is  upon  the  seed  (or  spore)  by  means 
of  which  the  individual  plant  reproduces  it- 
self and  so  persists  as  species  through  time. 
This  seed  is,  therefore,  its  essentially  genetic 
principle,  its  participation  in  creation  itself, 
of  which  every  Plant  is  a  little  living  dot. 
The  seed-world,  including  grains,  fruits,  ber- 


PLANT-LIFE—GENERATION.  251 

ries,  nuts,  etc.,  is  thus  the  vast  storehouse  of 
Life  on  which  animals  feed,  ever  renewing 
their  organic  existence,  and  plants  likewise 
get  sustenance  thence.  So  arises  this  in- 
creased care  of  Nature  for  protecting  and 
preserving  in  the  seed  her  generative  power. 
The  Angiosperm  seems  to  return  upon  the 
fern-leaf  and  to  transform  it  into  a  seed- 
house  whose  walls  now  guard  the  precious 
contents  inside;  whereas  in  the  fern  (first 
stage  of  the  Cormophyte)  the  leaf  was  quite 
independent  of  the  seed,  the  master  of  it  more 
than  the  servant,  though  this  relation  seems 
already  reversed  in  the  fossil  Pteridosperm. 
The  seed  in  general  has  prepared  for  man  his 
assimilative  life-stuff  directly,  and  also  indi- 
rectly through  the  lower  animals.  But  the 
seed  must  get  its  store  through  the  Plant 
from  the  vast  reservoir  of  Earth-life,  which 
man  cannot  bite  off  immediately.  At  least 
not  yet ;  possibly  the  time  may  come  when  he 
through  science  may  be  able  to  tap  the  primal 
fountain  of  Life  without  the  mediation  of  the 
Plant-world.  But  for  the  present  the  little 
vegetal  cell  has  to  individuate  all  life-energy 
for  the  animal,  as  far  as  we  can  now  see. 

The  Angiosperms  are  the  culmination  of  the 
Cormophytes,  hence  of  the  Plant-world.  They 
are  a  third  stage  or  division  again,  and  indi- 
cate the  highest  evolution  of  vegetal  life, 


252        THE  BIOCOSMOS— PARTICULARIZED. 

though  they  too  will  show  their  own  evolu- 
tionary ascent.  The  Angiosperms  are  sup- 
posed to  contain  more  than  125,000  species,  a 
number,  probably  thirty  times  greater  than 
all  the  other  Cormophytes  combined.  The 
most  useful,  the  most  beautiful,  the  most  ad- 
vanced Plants,  from  the  human  point  of  view, 
are  embraced  in  the  present  division;  also 
they  are  the  most  conspicuous  and  self-dis- 
playing. A  salient  phase  of  their  total  char- 
acter is  just  this  manifestation;  it  may  well 
be  deemed  that  the  floral  soul,  hitherto  quite 
implicit  has  now  come  to  self-revelation. 
Hence  they  were  called  Phanerogams  by  the 
older  botanists,  who  in  a  number  of  ways 
were  closer  to  Nature  than  some  modern  ones 
(of  the  University  Laboratory)  who  are  try- 
ing to  drive  the  name  out  of  the  science.  It 
may  be  granted  that  it  is  not  easy  to  define, 
What  is  a  flower?  over  which  question  bot- 
anists have  larruped  one  another  and  their 
much-enduring  readers.  Yet  the  prime  fact 
is  that  the  whole  Plant-world  has  now  flow- 
ered ;  hitherto  dumb  it  has  attained  a  kind  of 
language;  hitherto  vegetally  unconscious,  it 
has  now  come  to  a  kind  of  floral  consciousness 
(though  different  enough  from  the  human). 
Indeed  we  may  put  together  for  the  sake  of 
comparing  the  two  great  kingdoms,  the  vege- 
tal and  the  animal,  the  corresponding  rungs 


PLANT-LIFE—GENERATION.  253 

of  the  two  evolutionary  ladders.  In  this  case, 
the  Angiosperms  and  the  Primates  can  be 
regarded  as  correlatives,  or  partially  so,  in 
the  ascent  of  Life-forms. 

Here  it  should  be  noted  that  the  Plant- 
world  like  the  Animal-world  is  found  to  be 
subject  to  evolution,  though  this  part  of  Bot- 
any has  lagged  somewhat  on  account  of  its 
many  difficulties.  Still  there  can  be  seen  in 
general  the  rise  from  the  thallus  to  the  flow- 
er, which  is  the  great  fruition.  Also  the  geo- 
logic past  reveals  a  successive  ascent  of 
Plant-forms,  mounting  from  the  eophyton  (if 
it  exists)  of  the  Laurentian  up  to  the  Meso- 
zoic  when  our  earth,  hitherto  mainly  green, 
began  slowly  to  flower  forth,  possibly  along 
with  the  budding  man  whose  consciousness 
also  was  inflorescing.  It  would  seem  that 
Earth-life  in  that  pivotal  time  was  likewise 
passing  through  a  similar  stage  to  those  of 
man  and  phanerogam — a  stage  of  early  self- 
manifestation.  According  to  the  theory  of 
De  Vries,  that  first  flower  might  have  been 
"a  sport, "  a  sudden  saltation  out  of  some 
backward  cryptogam  toward  floral  perfection. 
So,  too,  man  has  been  accounted  for.  But  we 
have  to  think  that  both  cases  must  go  back  to 
Earth-life  as  the  ultimate  source  of  such  mu- 
tations. 

Thus  the  Plant  has  its  historic  evolution 


254        THE  BIOC08MOS— PARTICULARIZED. 

through  the  ages,  from  its  earliest  germ  to 
the  present  highest  form — this  is  often  called 
its  philogeny.  But  it  has  also  its  embryology 
or  its  individual  development  from  the  germ 
likewise  to  its  completed  growth — this  is 
known  as  its  ontogeny,  which  moves  on  a  sig- 
nificant parallel  with  the  aforesaid  philogeny. 
The  third  form  of  vegetal  evolution  is  the 
ever-present  total  Generation  of  Plant-life 
from  the  germ  to  the  highest  Phanerogam. 
All  three  lines  of  the  evolution  of  the  Plant 
move  in  different  ways  toward  the  common 
end  which  is  the  Angiosperm  in  its  supreme 
flower. 

This  brings  us  to  the  great  drawback  in  the 
domain  of  the  Angiosperms :  the  lack  of  any 
satisfactory  ordering.  The  central  difficulty 
in  our  opinion  pivots  upon  the  large  family 
or  tribe  known  as  the  Composite,  which  the 
botanists  have  not  been  able  to  put  into  any 
suitable  place  in  the  total  Plant-world.  The 
Angiosperms  aredividedprimarily  into  mono- 
cotyledonous  and  dicotyledonous — which  di- 
vision takes  as  its  criterion  the  seed  with  its 
embryonic  leaf,  which  may  be  one  or  two.  But 
the  seed  of  the  Composite  (usually  ranked  as 
dicotyledonous),  considering  the  many  flow- 
ers which  grow  out  of  it  in  a  single  head, 
should  be  polycotyledonous,  as  are  the  seeds 
of  certain  Gymnosperms,  such  as  the  pine. 


PLANT-LIFE—GENERATION.  255 

This  fact,  ideally  true,  does  not,   however, 
show  itself  in  the  form  of  the  cotyledon. 

Now  the  point  upon  which  the  chief  stress  is 
to  be  laid,  is  that  each  Composite  flower  is  no 
longer  a  single  flower  but  an  associated  group 
of  flowers.  Such  is  the  unique  fact  now  risen 
to  view:  the  floral  individuals  in  their  turn 
have  advanced  to  association  in  one  body, 
which,  'however,  preserves  the  individuality 
of  each  flower  that  in  this  relation  is  called 
a  floret.  The  whole  is  surrounded  and  unified 
by  its  own  corolla  and  calyx,  which  have  like- 
wise their  own  individual  character,  and 
which  form  the  peripheral  ray-flower.  Thus 
we  behold  an  actual  union  of  associated  indi- 
viduals in  the  vegetal  kingdom,  whose  last 
and  highest  act  is  just  this.  We  may  call  it 
a  true  federation  of  flowers  with  its  unitary 
bond  (involucre)  enclosing,  protecting,  and 
conjoining  the  federated  individuals,  each  of 
which  may  be  a  complete  flower,  having  its 
own  form  and  law,  we  might  say  its  own 
sphere  of  sovereignty.  Such  is  in  general  the 
Composite  flower  (a  more  appropriate  title 
would  be  associated, or  even  federated)  withits 
significant  union  of  many  into  one  (e  pluribus 
unum).  Our  most  striking  flowers  are  con- 
tinually bringing  this  fact  before  our  eyes 
in  .the  blooming  season :  the  golden-rod,  the 


256        THE  BIOCOSMOS— PARTICULARIZED. 

sunflower,  the  chrysanthemum,  the  dandelion, 
the  thistle,  etc.;  each  manifests  the  underly- 
ing principle  in  its  way,  according  to  its  own 
individuality — the  petulant  thistle  always 
ready  for  a  fight  with  swords  drawn,  the  flaunt- 
ing sunflower  always  begging  for  a  caress 
from  its  sun-god,  the  modest  daisy  quite 
shrinking  from  a  glance  into  the  admirer's 
face.  Yet  all  of  them  are  associated,  having 
many  florets  in  the  one  flower.  Indeed  just 
this  association  gives  a  vast  new  field  for  the 
development  of  floral  individuality;  there  is 
no  telling  what  new  forms  and  new  characters 
may  be  developed  from  such  a  floral  associ- 
ative powe'r.  For  relatively  this  act  has  just 
begun,  the  confederacy  of  flowers  has  but  re- 
cently appeared  in  the  Plant-world. 

It  is  agreed  by  botanists  that  the  Com- 
posites are  the  youngest  of  the  Angiosperms, 
which  have  been  already  designated  as  the 
youngest  of  the  Cormophytes;  that  is,  the 
last  plants  to  flower,  in  the  movement  of  the 
geologic  ages,  are, just  now  the  flowering 
plants  (Angiosperms),  and  the  most  recent 
birth  of  the  latter  is  the  Composite  flower. 
Again  the  comparison  will  come  up :  the  asso- 
ciation of  men  into  the  federal  State  is  so  far 
the  final  outcome  and  crown  of  the  political 
evolution  of  historic  time;  in  a  similar  man- 
ner the  evolution  of  the  floral  world  has 


PLANT-LIFE—GENERATION.  £57 

reached  what  we  may  call  a  federal  flower, 
which  is  its  present  culmination. 

The  Composites  are  not  only  the  highest  in 
rank  and  the  youngest  in  years,  but  also  the 
largest  in  numbers  of  all  the  flowering  fam- 
ilies (the  Angiosperms).  It  contains  accord- 
ing to  the  most  recent  estimate  under  my 
eye  (1911)  at  least  12,500  species.  It  is,  how- 
ever, not  well  defined  or  even  described; 
hence  the  limits  of  the  total  group  and  its 
salient  character  have  not  been  distinctly 
seen.  Its  supreme  conception  must  be  that 
of  the  associated  flower;  other  traits,  though 
important,  are  subordinate.  It  is  inept  to 
classify  primarily  the  Composites  by  the  co- 
tyledon, as  dicotyledonous.  Its  essential  cri- 
terion is  that  of  association,  to  which  there  is 
a  gradual  rise  from  the  simplest  flowering 
plant.  Such  a  view,  however,  breaks  down 
the  whole  cotyledonous  classification  of  the 
Angiosperms,  which  should  be  graded  and 
ordered  by  their  approach  to  their  supreme 
form  in  the  Composite  group.  Moreover,  as 
the  Phanerogams  (or  Angiosperms)  have 
evolved  to  the  point  of  manifesting  their 
character  just  in  their  flowering,  this  must  be 
what  is  associated,  namely  the  flower.  So  the 
true  criterion  of  ordering  the  Phanerogams 
drawn  from  their  essential  nature  should  be 


258        THE  BIOCOSM08— PARTICULARIZED. 

the  evolution  of  the  stage  of  flower-associa- 
tion. 

Without  going  into  details  we  may  offer 
here  a  tentative  arrangement.  (1)  The  evo- 
lution from  spiral  to  cyclic  flowering.  The 
simplest  flowers  are  ranked  externally  about 
an  elongated  axis  in  a  spiral  (like  le-aves). 
This  linear  order  unfolds  into  the  round.  (2) 
The  evolution  of  the  cyclic  single  flower  to  the 
associated  flower.  This  has  many  gradations 
which  are  represented  in  many  families.  (3) 
The  evolution  of  the  associated  flower  (Com- 
posite) within  itself,  which  also  shows  numer- 
ous stages,  or  degrees  of  associative  (or  fed- 
erative) excellence  up  to  the  supreme  flower; 
which  flower,  however,  is  a  problem. 

We  may  here  interject  a  little  personal 
theory  as  to  the  reason  why  the  Composite 
have  not  been  adequately  treated  by  the  Euro- 
pean botanists  who  have  of  course  taught  the 
American.  It  is  that  the  federative  con- 
sciousness has  been  wanting.  For  the  scien- 
tific mind  participates  in  the  social  and  insti- 
tunal  order  of  its  nation  and  age,  and  is  in- 
deed trained  by  the  same  in  its  deepest  cre- 
ative character.  Our  feeling  is,  as  we  look  out 
upon  the  flower-world  with  its  profound  sug- 
gestiveness,,that  the  Composite  flower  is  the 
true  floral  representative  of  the  Federal 
Union. 


PLANT-LIFE— GENERATION.  £59 

But  the  Composite  is  a  very  large  family, 
containing  more  than  twelve  thousand  spe- 
cies, as  just  stated.  Which  is  the  supreme 
species?  What  flower  shall  we  crown  as 
queen  of  the  floral  kingdom?  Some  have 
chosen  the  sunflower,  others  the  golden-rod, 
still  others  the  thistle,  which  has  a  high 
inner  association,  and  externally  an  all- 
sided  military  armament  coupled  with  ready 
pugnacity.  Still  there  seems  to  be  no  decided 
supremacy  anywhere,  we  find  nothing  in  the 
Plant-world  to  correspond  to  the  superiority 
of  the  genus  homo  among  animals.  As  pre- 
viously Indicated,  the  super-flower  is  yet  to 
be  evolved,  perchance  by  some  Burbank  with 
his  new  art  of  controlling  and  improving  flo- 
ral evolution. 

Such,  then,  is  in  brief  the  organization  of 
total  Plant-life,  of  which  we  may  here  give 
a  short  synopsis.  The  first  ordering  is  rep- 
resented by  three  stages  which  are  (A)  Thal- 
lophytes,  (B)  Bryophytes,  (C)  Cormophytes. 
These  last  branch  out  into  (I)  Pteridophytes, 
(II)  Gymnosperms,  (III)  Angiosperms, 
wherein  the  Plant-world  has  flowered.  This 
flowering  division  unfolds  into  the  before- 
mentioned  forms:  (1)  axial,  (2)  cyclic,  (3) 
associative.  So  the  entire  Plant-world  may 
be  likened  to  the  tree  (one  of  its  shapes) 
springing  from  unseen  depths  into  the  visible 


260        THE  BIOCOSMOS— PARTICULARIZED. 

trunk  which  sends  forth  leafy  green  branches 
that  finally  top  out  the  whole  in  a  many-col- 
ored flower-life. 

Nor  should  we  fail  to  note  the  correspond- 
ing realization  of  the  associative  idea  through 
many  ascending  shapes  from  the  primal  cell 
to  the  highest  flower.  That  primal  cell  is  it- 
self organized  as  the  starting  point  of  pres- 
ent science;  first  is  the  association  of  cells 
into  organs,  then  the  association  of  organs 
into  the  whole  organism  of  the  flower,  finally 
appears  the  association  of  these  floral  organ- 
isms into  a  kind  of  corporation  or  institution, 
which  is  still  a  flower,  with  many  associated 
florets,  each  of  which  is  a  complete  organic 
individual  within  itself,  yet  engirdled  and 
fortressed  without  by  another  floral  organ- 
ism which  unites  them  inwardly  and  protects 
them  outwardly.  Thus  we  find  two  floral  sys- 
tems in  the  Composite  (and  sometimes  traces 
of  more)  yet  united  into  one  doubly  associat- 
ed flower. 

Another  phase  of  vegetal  association  may 
be  here  noted  in  passing.  The  terrestrial 
elements,  water  (or  its  absence),  soil,  air 
(wind)  are  causes  of  a  varied  grouping  of 
Plants  from  low  to  high.  Also  the  radiants, 
heat,  light,  and  electricity  determine  what  are 
often  called  Plant  societies.  In  other  words 
the  various  diacosmical  energies  of  Nature 


PLANT-LIFE— GENERATION.  261 

influence  the  conjunction  of  vegetation  in  a 
given  territory.  As  there  are  diverse  societies 
of  men,  so  there  are  diverse  societies  of 
Plants,  which  fact  has  given  rise  to  a  new 
branch  of  botanical  science  known  as  ecology. 
Water  will  produce  one  kind  of  plant-town 
(Hydrophytes),  dry  land  another  (Xero- 
phytes),  and  so  on.  The  swamp,  the  forest, 
the  meadow  have  each  its. own  vegetal  com- 
munity, which  is  composed  of  many  sorts  of 
individuals. 

But  the  supreme  association  of  Plants  is 
to  grasp  them  as  a  whole,  evolving  in  all  their 
variety  and  gradation  after  their  common 
underlying  norm,  which  can  best  be  seen  in 
the  evolutionary  line  of  the  total  Generation 
of  Plant-life.  It  may  be  said  that  the  entire 
vegetal  world  has  now  flowered  and  seeded, 
and  thus  come  to  its  fulfilment.  It  has  vital- 
ized the  Cosmos  and  the  Diacosmos,  convert- 
ing them  into  the  Biocosmos,  at  the  first  life- 
stage  thereof.  But  all  along  we  have  seen  the 
Plant  as  purposive,  as  striving  toward  an  end 
beyond  itself.  It  shows  itself  finally  as  means 
for  something  higher,  which  is  witnessed 
when  the  animal  takes  it  as  food  and  thus 
brings  it  to  fulfil  its  destiny.  Accordingly 
the  animal  in  its  origin  and  evolution  begins 
to  dawn  upon  our  vision.  But  this  throws  us 
back  to  the  starting-point,  to  that  original  bi- 


262        THE  BIOCOSMOS— PARTICULARIZED. 

furcation  of  the  life-stuff  into  Plant  and  Ani- 
mal, of  which  the  first  and  most  immediate 
line  has  been  traced  in  the  foregoing  account. 
It  should  be  stated,  however,  that  the  evo- 
lutionary succession  of  Plant-life,  as  just 
given,  has  been  sometimes  questioned.  Ke- 
cently  the  declaration  has  been  made  that  the 
Bryophytes  (Mosses)  are  a  kind  of  relapse 
from  higher  forms,  as  they  occur  only  in  the 
later  strata,  as  far  as  known.  Even  more  sur- 
prising is  the  statement  now  heard  that  the 
monocotyledons  are  younger  than  the  dico- 
tyledons, be  it  a  forward  or  backward  move- 
ment of  Plant-life.  This  view  has  the  ten- 
dency to  undermine  the  cotyledon  as  the  es- 
sential criterion  of  ordering  the  Angio- 
sperms.  Fossil  botany  is  beginning  to  supply 
some  missing  links  like  the  Pteridosperms,  in 
which  the  fern-leaf  bears  a  true  seed,  not  a 
spore  like  the  fern  of  today.  One  Plant,  a 
sort  of  yew  called  the  Ginkgo  (Maidenhair) 
has  survived  from  the  Paleozoic  and  Meso- 
zoic  when  its  distribution  was  world-wide,  in 
a  single  species  now  found  in  Japan  and 
China  only  as  a  cultivated  Plant  and  sacred — 
which  fact  has  probably  preserved  it  from 
extinction,  for  it  hardly  belongs  to  the  flora 
of  our  day.  Thus  a  vegetal  product  of  Car- 
boniferous condition  has  crept  down  the  ages 
m  a  solitary  example,  and  has  succeeded  in 


PLANT-LIFE—GENERA  TION.  263 

living  with  the  much  later  Angiosperms  in 
the  fierce  struggle  for  existence  which  has 
wiped  out  so  many  of  those  oldest  Gymno- 
sperms.  Perhaps  the  chief  reason  why  the 
Gingko  tree  has  been  preserved  is  that  it  bore 
an  edible  fruit  which  is  still  sold  in  the  mar- 
kets of  China.  This  quality  of  it  was  doubt- 
less appieeiated  by  the  primitive  man  who 
may  uave  interfered  in  favor  of  it  as  a  food- 
producing  Plant,  against  the  young  and  more 
ngoro  is  Angiosperio.s  which  had  already  be- 
gun to  flower  seemingly  with  the  early  human 
flowering. 

Many  of  the  experts  in  fossil  Botany  are 
now  saying  that  there  is  no  certain  geologic 
record  of  non-vascular  Plants,  which  appear 
to  have  no  power  of  perpetuating  their  forms 
in  the  rocks.  The  history  of  Plant-life  on 
the  globe  would  then  begin  with  the  Oormo- 
phytes  in  which  the  vascular  system  is  first 
unfolded.  Here  lies,  we  may  note  again,  that 
widest  chasm  in  the  Plant-world,  as  botanists 
declare,  which  may  yet  be  bridged  over  by  the 
discovery  of  intermediate  forms. 

But  already  the  Animal  has  appeared  in  its 
own  norm  as  distinct  from  the  Plant,  and  has 
evolved  on  a  somewhat  parallel  line  to  our 
time,  with  its  own  characteristics.  The  Com- 
posite flower  we  have  placed  in  the  highest 
rank,  as  it  is  no  longer  merely  an  isolated  in- 


264        THE  BIOCOSMOS— PARTICULARIZED. 

dividual  but  is  an  association  of  many  flow- 
ers, having  a  specialization  within  itself  of 
stations  and  duties,  for  the  outer  floral  band 
or  bands  can  show  a  different  form  and  func- 
tion from  the  inner  florets.  Still  they  are  one 
community — a  communal  flower  with  a  kind 
of  communal  organization.  Then  each  seed 
of  each  part  will  bring  forth  the  total  flower ; 
indeed  the  asexual  cutting  may  reproduce  the 
Plant  fully  sexualized,  thus  each  portion, 
even  the  cell,  has  in  it  the  process  of  the  en- 
tirety— has  in  it  the  generative  or  enduring 
element  as  well  as  the  assimilative  or  mortal 
element,  of  the  vegetal  organism.  Still  in  the 
Gompositae,  we  must  here  observe,  the  center 
of  protection  and  union  appears  on  the  out- 
side, in  the  enclosing  band  (involucre)  which 
holds  the  community  together.  Thus  in  its 
highest  manifestation,  the  flower  must  be 
deemed  to  have  its  unity  external,  it  is  com- 
bined or  associated  from  without,  hence  its 
protection  is  quite  passive,  it  cannot  strike 
back  or  even  get  out  of  the  way. 

But  now  we  are  to  consider  that  living  or- 
ganism which  in  its  typical  form  has  its  cen- 
ter within,  organized  and  controlling.  With 
this  thought  we  may  pass  to  the  Animal, 
which  is  next  to  be  consideredo 


ANIMAL  LIFE  IN  GENERAL.  265 


II.    ANIMAL  LIFE. 

If  we  notice  the  animal  before  us,  we  ob- 
serve that  it  has  the  power  to  break  its  im- 
mediate connection  with  the  Earth,  though 
it  soon  resumes  that  connection.  It  can  cut 
loose  from  gravity  in  a  moment  of  effort,  but 
always  comes  back  again.  The  dog  lifts  his 
foot,  yet  can  put  it  down  on  another  spot; 
bringing  his  act  in  relation  to  the  physical 
universe,  we  may  say  that  he  has  a  limited 
control  over  the  Earth's  attraction,  he  can 
degravitate  even  if  he  soon  re-gravitates. 
The  animal  body  is  thus  able  to  separate  from 
the  terrestrial  body,  its  elemental  source,  and 
to  renew  its  spatial  relation  thereto;  it  can 
replace  itself  in  space. 

Herein  the  Animal  is  different  from  the 
Plant,  and  this  we  may  deem  their  primal 
difference.  The  Plant  is  fixed  in  its  fated 
spot  of  Earth,  the  Animal  has  relatively  spa- 
tial freedom.  Gravitation  is  the  unitary  prin- 
ciple of  the  total  Cosmos;  but  the  Animal  can 
break  from  it  for  a  moment,  and  defy  it  a  lit- 
tle. This  is  his  primitive  separation,  in  which 
he  asserts  his  earliest  individuality  even 
against  the  primal  cosmical  law.  The  Plant 
cannot  perform  any  such  act  of  separation; 
it  remains  practically  unseparated  from  its 


266        THE  BIOCOSMOS— PARTICULARIZED. 

source,  the  Earth-mother,  even  if  it  grows  and 
strives  in  the  opposite  direction,  toward  its 
Sun-father.  So  much  is  suggested  by  the 
locomotion  of  the  Animal:  it  can  reproduce 
its  position  in  spite  of  the  mechanical  deter- 
minism of  the  Cosmos.  Or  we  may  say  that 
the  position  of  the  Animal  in  space  is  medi- 
ated by  itself,  while  that  of  the  Plant  remains 
immediate,  and  keeps  its  appointed  spot,  not 
being  able  to  re-appoint  itself  to  a  new  posi- 
tion. 

Such  a  power  pre-supposes  in  the  Animal 
an  inner  organic  self-control;  the  organism 
has  to  be  self-centered  in  order  to  lift  itself 
and  move  about;  all  the  organs  must  be  di- 
rected from  within  by  one  organ  more  or  less 
centralized;  in  fact,  animals  are  graded  by 
the  possession  of  this  power.  Plants  on  the 
other  hand  are  essentially  decentered  within ; 
each  organ  is  practically  autonomous,  and  can 
be,  under  certain  conditions,  the  entire  Plant, 
both  in  assimilation  and  reproduction.  In  the 
animal  organism  then,  each  organ  is  properly 
a  member  of  the  whole  and  cannot  take  the 
latter/s  place,  being  subordinate  and  not 
autonomous  —  not  independent  but  interde- 
pendent. The  boundaries  between  the  two 
sides,  however,  are  not  precipitate,  but  very 
gradual.  Here  again  we  should  note  the 
fact  of  separation  in  the  Animal;  it  has  its 


ANIMAL  LIFE  IN  GENERAL.  267 

own  center  as  distinct  from  that  of  the  Earth ; 
its  body  being  material,  is  heavy  and  still 
gravitates;  from  this  point  of  view  it  has 
two  centers:  one  of  its  Unlife  and  the  other 
of  its  Life. 

With  this  organized  central  principle  of  the 
Animal  is  connected  another  characteristic: 
sensation.  The  typical  Animal  feels  in  each 
part  of  its  organism,  because  this  is  organ- 
ically centralized  in  the  brain  and  the  nerves 
which  radiate  to  every  dot  of  the  bodily 
periphery  (efferent),  then  turn  around  and 
come  back  on  a  different  line  (afferent).  The 
general  center  is  thus  specialized  into  local 
centers  thousandfold,  each  of  which  is  a  lit- 
tle brain  with  its  two  sets  of  nerves  united 
ultimately  with  the  central  brain.  When  one 
of  these  special  centers  is  stimulated,  this 
stimulus  is  at  once  generalized  by  the  central 
organ,  and  the  entire  organism  participates 
in  the  stimulus.  The  process  of  the  one  small 
part  is  thus  elevated  into  the  process  of  whole, 
which  is  the  act  of  sensation.  The  single 
member,  being  pricked  with  the  point  of  a 
needle,  causes  the  entire  body  to  feel  that  it 
too  is  pricked;  what  hurts  anywhere  hurts 
all  over.  The  animal  organism  centralizing 
and  so  universalizing  each  particular  organ, 
however  minute,  within  its  own  periphery, 
is  sensitive,  as  it  can  sense  each  locality  af- 


268        THE  BIOCOSMOS— PARTICULARIZED. 

fected  on  its  surface.  The  Plant,  having  no 
such  organic  center  and  hence  no  such  power 
of  centralization,  cannot  make  general  what 
affects  it,  and  hence  has  no  general  sensation, 
but  only  a  partial  one,  in  proportion  as  each 
vegetal  organ  may  be  a  partial  center.  Thus 
it  may  be  acknowledged  that  Plants  have  a 
limited  and  local  sensation,  as  we  may  ob- 
serve in  the  Sensitive  Plant.  To  be  sure, 
Animals  differ  much  in  this  regard,  accord- 
ing to  the  degree  in  which  their  organism  is 
centralized.  The  cycle  of  sensation  always 
sweeping  from  circumference  to  center  and 
back  again  is  what  emphatically  individual- 
izes the  animal  organism,  rounding  it  out  in 
a  perpetual  process  within  itself  and  against 
its  environment,  which  it  posits  as  distinct 
from  itself  and  separated.  Thus  the  animal 
body  within  its  sphere  is  a  self-determining 
unit,  yet  keeps  up  a  continual  clash  with  ex- 
ternal determination,  from  which  it  cannot 
wholly  escape,  especially  as  it  draws  thence 
its  sustenance.  Sensation  is  indeed  a  kind  of 
consciousness,  not  yet  internalized  but  on  the 
way  thither:  its  two  sides  fall  asunder  into 
separate  organs  which,  however,  return  into 
each  other,  though  externally,  through  the 
nerves.  The  process  of  the  Psyche  is  at 
work  in  sensation,  though  not  yet  through 
itself  purely,  but  incorporate  in  the  body's 


ANIMAL  LIFE  IN  GENERAL.  269 

members.  So,  if  sensation  be  a  kind  of  con- 
sciousness, it  is  not  yet  conscious  of  it,  not 
yet  conscious  of  its  consciousness,  but  rather 
of  its  outer  organism — Psyche  having  not  yet 
won  its  own  form. 

The  Animal,  having  through  sensation  in- 
dividualized itself  as  a  whole  in  a  continual 
process,  will  proceed  to  individualize  in  detail 
everything  else  that  it  does.  It  takes  its  food 
by  bits,  its  air  by  single  breaths,  its  water  by 
mouthfuls.  Thus  the  elements  needful  for  its 
life  do  not  flow  in  upon  it  in  natural  masses, 
but  are  first  separated,  divided  up,  individual- 
ized by  its  special  organs.  Internally  the 
same  process  is  continued  till  in  the  chemism 
of  the  body  the  ultimate  unit  is  reached,  the 
atom.  But  the  Plant  has  not  this  peculiar 
trait,  or  less  decidedly;  it  does  not  breathe, 
drink,  eat  in  morsels,  but  uninterruptedly,  or 
nearly  so.  Its  relation  to  Nature  is  more 
immediate  and  unbroken,  while  the  Animal 
breaks  Nature  to  pieces  before  accepting  it, 
and  individualizes  it  more  completely  from 
its  first  seizure  to  its  last  assimilation.  The 
Animal  through  its  decisive  individuality 
tends  to  make  all  that  it  touches  individual 
like  itself — that  is  its  primal  assimilation.  It 
dares  tackle  and  appropriates  in  its  own  way 
the  primordial  forms  of  the  Cosmos,  indi- 
vidualizing Space  (in  its  locomotion),  Time 


270        THE  BIOCOSMOS— PARTICULARIZED. 

(in  its  periodic  food-taking  and  otherwise), 
Matter  (in  its  various  aliments).  So  too  the 
Cosmos  is  being  broken  up  into  self-active 
units  in  the  Animal. 

The  Animal  feeds  on  the  Plant  and  also  on 
the  Animal ;  that  is,  its  food  is  not  immediate 
and  elemental  like  that  of  the  Plant,  but  medi- 
ated, already  organized.  On  the  whole  the 
Plant  has  to  go  in  advance  and  prepare  a 
green  world  for  the  Animal,  which  assimilates 
what  has  been  already  assimilated.  The  Ani- 
mal is  thus  a  second  life  which  depends  on 
a  first  life  for  its  complete  appropriation  of 
the  Earth  and  Sun,  of  the  Cosmos  and  Dia- 
cosmos.  Still  the  Animal  cannot  do  with- 
out the  immediate  elements,  such  as  air  and 
water,  nor  dispense  with  the  immediate  ra- 
diants, as  heat,  light  and  electricity;  that  is, 
it  has  also  a  vegetal  character;  in  fact,  the 
Animal  is  all  three  phases  of  Nature — Matter 
(as  being  gravitative)  and  Plant  as  well  as 
Animal,  which  last  is  the  purposive  outcome 
or  perchance  the  -aspiration  of  the  other  two. 

Another  distinction  lies  in  the  realm  of 
sleep.  The  Plant  is  always  dormant,  even 
it  has  stages  of  dormancy.  It  cannot  fully 
separate  itself  from  its  immediate  relation 
to  Nature,  especially  to  the  Earth,  and  be- 
come awake.  Of  course,  when  the  sun  with- 
draws, it  may  take  a  period  of  rest  or  have 


ANIMAL  LIFE  IN  GENERAL.  271 

a  diversion  of  activity.  The  tree  cannot  lie 
down  like  man  and  go  to  sleep,  for  it  is  al- 
ready asleep;  that  is,  it  is  already  in  imme- 
diate communion  with  the  Earth-life.  So  the 
Animal  mediates  its  repose — sleep  we  may 
call  a  mediated  repose,  which  alternates  with 
the  waking  state.  The  Animal  in  sleep  un- 
centers  -itself,  gives  up  that  centralized  indi- 
viduality and  returns  to  its  primal  creative 
unity  with  Nature.  This  is  signified  in  its 
prostrate  position,  which  no  longer  resists 
gravitation  but  drops  back  into  the  original 
oneness  of  the  Cosmos.  It  closes  its  eyes  and 
all  the  senses,  which  take  a  fresh  dip  into 
that  creative  life-stuff,  out  of  which  they  were 
originally  differentiated.  Thus  in  the  waking 
struggle  the  Animal  becomes  exhausted  and 
must  return  in  sleep  to  the  primordial  reser- 
voir of  vital  existence  for  a  new  draught. 
Strange,  but  every  twenty- four  hours  the  Ani- 
mal must  be  re-born  vitally.  It  goes  back  for 
a  spell  into  the  womb  of  its  All-Mother  Na- 
ture (not  into  that  of  its  particular  mother) 
where  it  is  individuated  afresh,  apparently 
in  every  cell,  which  must  be  the  ultimate  seat 
of  fatigue.  Now  the  Plant  never  loosens  its 
hold  on  the  breast  of  Nature  but  keeps  suck- 
ing, with  possibly  a  light  nap  occasionally ; 
it  never  gets  fully  differentiated  into  waking 
and  sleeping;  it  never  fully  breaks  its  con- 


272        THE  BIOCOSMOS— PARTICULARIZED. 

nection  with  the  life-stuff,  till  the  tie  is  ex- 
ternally broken  by  death,  though  day  and 
night  make  some  change  in  the  Plant,  since 
the  Earth-life  is  halved  into  a  continual  pro- 
cess of  sleeping  and  waking  by  terrestrial 
rotation.  The  unborn  Animal  sleeps  and 
feeds  plant-like;  it  is  passing  through  its 
vegetal  stage,  a  kind  of  phytozoon  on  the 
way  to  the  complete  bifurcation  of  Plant  and 
Animal,  which  hardly  takes  place  before 
weaning.  Sleep  is,  therefore,  the  animal's 
daily  physical  regeneration  seemingly  from 
Life's  protoplasmic  sources;  the  whole  course 
of  its  evolution  it  has  to  re-enact  every  day, 
if  it  is  going  to  live.  Man  has  to  lie  down 
and  embrace  the  bosom  of  his  All-mother  at 
full  length,  becoming  an  infant  again,  yea  a 
Plant,  till  he  touches  the  life-giving  sources  of 
the  whole  vital  world,  we  may  suppose.  Ee- 
born  of  the  creative  Universe  daily  is  his  liv- 
ing cycle  in  each  round  of  the  Sun,  with  whom 
he  in  his  way  sets  and  rises.  Thus  the  act 
of  the  Animal  individuating  itself  for  hun- 
dreds of  millions  of  years,  has  to  be  re-enacted 
by  man  with  every  diurnal  whirl  of  the  Earth, 
His  whole  line  of  living  evolution  he  has  to 
re-evolve  in  bed,  or  at  least  recuperate,  other- 
wise he  stops  and  goes  back  to  the  elements. 
Significant  is  the  fact  that  the  Animal 
evolves  the  eye,  which  has  the  power  of  posit- 


ANIMAL  LIFE  IN  GENERAL.  273 

ing  the  objective  world  as  distinct  and  exist- 
ent, through  the  mediation  of  the  light-waves. 
Thus  the  dualism  between  subject  and  object 
is  no  longer  merely  implicit  as  in  the  lower 
animals,  but  has  become  explicit,  realized 
through  vision,  which  produces  this  division. 
The  eye  makes  the  separation  between  the 
seen  and  the  seeing,  though  it  reaches  not  to 
the  self-seeing,  the  higher  act  of  the  Ego. 
When  the  eye  sees  not  only  the  glassy  pool 
but  also  sees  itself  mirrored  in  the  same,  it  is 
a  kind  of  outer  Ego,  self-beholding  indeed, 
but  altogether  on  the  outside — a  forecasting 
dream  of  the  real  Ego  thrown  upon  the  exter- 
nal world. 

Ako  the  Animal  evolves  a  voice  as  it  ad- 
vances into  its  higher  stages,  and  in  corre- 
spondence with  its  voice  a  more  fully  organ- 
ized ear.  The  two  organs  are  in  fact  coun- 
terparts, symmetrical  if  not  in  form  at  least 
in  purpose,  and  conjoin  their  separate  pos- 
sessors in  a  common  feeling,  however  slight. 
Thus  the  Animal  not  only  has  sensation  with- 
in the  organism  but  can  throw  it  out,  can  utter 
it  to  another  organism  which  thrills  in  re- 
sponse to  the  same  sensation,  whereby  the 
two  become  one  in  a  degree  and  are  associat- 
ed. The  self -movement  of  the  living  body  is 
concentrated  in  a  single  organ,  the  vocal 
chords,  which  vibrate  the  sensations  of  pain 


274        THE  BIOCOBMOS— PARTICULARIZED. 

and  pleasure  to  other  living  bodies  that  par- 
ticipate in  them  through  sympathetic  throbs, 
being  thus  fused  together  into  a  community 
by  means  of  feeling.  The  voice,  accordingly, 
is  a  great  instrument  of  association  already 
far  down  among  the  animals ;  but  its  destiny 
is  to  rise  to  articulate  speech  which  in  so  many 
ways  associates  human  beings,  and  is  itself  a 
wonderfully  organized  or  associated  product. 
Language  makes  the  community  of  souls  pos- 
sible through  communication  (or  what  makes 
several  individuals  common),  and  is  itself  the 
community  which  mediates  the  members  of 
the  communal  organization,  and  finally  is  to 
make  them  conscious  of  the  same  through 
its  utterance.  The  thoughtful  reader  will  nat- 
urally think  back  to  the  beginning  of  Nature's 
association  in  the  cell  and  follow  this  ever- 
advancing  principle  in  the  organ,  in  the  or- 
ganism, in  the  community  of  organisms  both 
of  Plant  and  Animal,  till  he  reaches  man 's  as- 
sociation in  institutions,  which  have  by  no 
means  yet  reached  their  final  evolution.  In- 
deed man  is  hardly  yet  aware  of  his  institu- 
tional heritage,  but  must  soon  become  so,  if 
he  is  to  save  it  from  the  anarchic  forces  now 
at  work.  Here,  however,  the  main  interest 
is  to  see  the  evolution  of  the  voice  in  the  Ani- 
mal as  the  chief  medium  of  Nature's  higher 
association. 


ANIMAL  LIFE  IN  GENERAL.  275 

The  Organism  of  the  Animal  becomes  sen- 
sibly heated  even  to  itself,  in  distinction  from 
the  organism  of  the  Plant,  though  the  latter 
too  has  its  heat-scale.  The  normal  tempera- 
ture in  man  is  usually  placed  at  about  99  de- 
grees (F.),  from  which  any  considerable  devi- 
ation is  unhealthy. '  Other  mammals  vary 
somewhat  from  this  norm;  it  is  highest  in 
certain  birds,  reaching  112  degrees  (F.).  The 
heat  of  the  animal  body  is  simply  a  result  of 
chemical  combustion ;  from  this  point  of  view 
our  organism  is  but  a  chemical  laboratory 
maintained  at  a  certain  degree  of  heat  neces- 
sary to  compose  and  decompose  the  various 
constituents  of  life;  too  much  or  too  little' 
heat  would  destroy  the  process.  This  ther- 
mal equipoise  is  maintained  within  by  the 
higher  animals  both  in  the  hotter  tropics  and 
in  the  colder  arctic  regions. 

Biologists  put  stress  upon  what  is  called 
a  morphological  distinction  between  the  Plant 
and  the  Animal :  the  former  has  a  membrane 
or  coat  of  cellulose  (with  some  exceptions), 
the  latter  has  no  such  coat  (with  some  ex- 
ceptions). Not  much  anchorage  can  be  found 
in  that  distinction.  A  common  physiological 
character  is  that  both  take  food  and  trans- 
form it  through  chemism  into  function  partly 
and  into  waste  partly,  the  latter  being  thrown 
off  as  excretion.  This  process  is  often  called 


276        THE  BIOCOSMOS— PARTICULARIZED. 

metabolism.  The  humblest  unicellular  Ani- 
mal has  already  some  kind  of  mouth  for  in- 
gesting food,  stomach  for  digesting  it,  vacuole 
for  ejecting  waste.  The  Plant  has  the  same 
general  process,  but  requires  different  aliment 
and  employs  different  organs.  This  vegetal 
food  is  mostly  liquid  and  inorganic ;  still  there 
are  not  a  few  Plants  which  live  on  decayed  or- 
ganisms (saprophytes) ;  organic  life  feeds 
also  the  parasitic  and  insect-catching  Plants. 
Suggestive  in  this  connection  is  the  dual 
character  of  the  Euglena,  an  infusorian.  Its 
assimilative  apparatus  is  double,  both  that 
of  the  Plant  and  of  the  Animal,  and  it  can 
employ  either  or  seemingly  both.  It  can  take 
carbon  dioxide  and  mineral  salts  by  means  of 
its  chlorophyll,  like  a  Plant.  But  it  has  also 
a  mouth,  gullet,  stomach  and  vacuole,  like  an 
Animal.  Which  is  it,  Plant  or  Animal  ?  Nat- 
uralists divide  on  the  question.  It  is  to  be  ob- 
served that  this  true  amphibian  (which  Word 
means  double-lived),  is  not  the  early  phyto- 
zoon,  in  which  the  'Plant  and  Animal  are  not 
yet  differentiated,  but  the  bifurcation  has 
iaken  place  and  the  two  lines  have  developed 
into  pronounced  difference.  Yet  in  the  pres- 
ent case  these  two  lines,  Plant  and  Animal, 
unite  into  a  single  living  thing  with  a  double 
organism,  conjoint  twins  of  Plant  and  Ani- 
mal. Such  a  bi-corporal  life  seems  unique 
but  has  its  suggestion  for  what  is  coming. 


ANIMAL  LIFE  IN  GENERAL.  277 

The  human  body  has  its  vegetal  assimila- 
tion of  liquid  nutrition  in  certain  organs, 
which  can  be  used  for  preserving  life  when 
the  stomach  is  incapacitated.  Already  it  has 
been  noted  that  man's  organism  has  its  Plant 
character,  present  but  subordinate,  which  it 
is  to  transcend  in  order  to  be  truly  itself.  The 
question  arises :  Can  the  Animal  lapse  to  the 
Plant?  Whatever  science  may  say  to  such  a 
metamorphosis,  poetry  has  celebrated  it  re- 
peatedly. Virgil  introduces  it  in  a  striking 
passage  of  the  Aeneid,  where  the  human  Plant 
is  made  to  speak  and  also  to  bubble  blood, 
though  fixed  in  earth.  Dante  picks  up  the 
same  incident  and  employs  such  a  transfor- 
mation as  a  punishment  for  the  sin  of  suicide 
in  one  of  the  circles  of  Inferno.  The  Euglena, 
however,  stands  as  the  instance  of  a  double- 
bodied  Plant-Animal  in  the  order  of  Nature. 

It  is  difficult  to  draw  a  fixed  line  between 
Plant  and  Animal  in  form  or  function,  for 
Nature  has  drawn  no  such  line.  Their  differ- 
ence is  sometimes  demanded  when  no  differ- 
entiation has  yet  taken  place.  That  is,  the 
difference  must  first  evolve,  then  it  exists  and 
can  be  given.  When  Plant  and  Animal  are 
evolved  into  their  typical  forms,  their  dis- 
tinction is  just  what  has  become  manifested. 
In  like  manner  the  definition  of  Life  is  re- 
fractory till  it  defines  itself  or  evolves  itself 


278         THE  BIOC01SMOS— PARTICULARIZED. 

as  distinct  from  Unlife.  Still  we  have  to 
think  what  Life  with  its  various  shapes  is  as 
a  stage  of  total  Nature,  and  formulate  it  just 
in  its  evolutionary  aspect,  which  indeed  man- 
ifests the  lurking  Psyche  in  the  Physis, 
whereof  much  has  been  already  said. 

At  present,  however,  we  are  to  set  forth 
the  basic  process  of  Animal-life,  which  pro- 
cess will  also  be  seen  to  be  psychical  in  its 
primordial  source.  This  process  will  have 
the  three  stages  which  we  have  already  no- 
ticed as  forming  the  round  of  every  living  in- 
dividual— Formation,  Assimilation,  Genera- 
tion. Life  has  inherently  this  triple  move- 
ment, be  it  vegetal,  animal  or  telluric.  As  a 
living  thing  the  individual  has  Form,  and 
keeps  forming  itself  after  one  and  the  same 
general  pattern;  but  in  order  to  form  itself 
and  thus  retain  its  Form,  it  must  also  have 
Assimilation,  which  appropriates  and  makes 
like  to  itself  the  external  and  unlike.  But 
this  external  world  with  which  it  grapples 
in  Assimilation,  is  far  vaster  and  stronger 
than  it  is,  and  will  in  time  assimilate  it  the 
other  way  to  Unlife  unless  it  can  reproduce 
itself  in  a  wholly  new  individual,  yet  of  its 
own  kind — its  offspring.  Generation  thus 
rises  to  reproducing  not  merely  the  sin- 
gle individual  within  its  own  organism,  but 
a  line  of  successive  individuals  through  time, 


ANIMAL  LIFE— FORMATION.  279 

manifesting  therein  a  deathless  element.  Ac- 
cordingly the  Biocosmos  must  show  these 
three  processes  of  Animal-life  in  some  detail. 

I.  THE  FOKMATIVE  PROCESS  OF  ANIMAL 
LIFE.  As  we  are  here  at  the  start  ushered 
into  the  presence  of  Form,  we  ask  whence 
comes  such  shaping  power?  The  question 
carries  us  back  to  the  primordial  individua- 
tion  of  the  Life-stuff  (Protobioticon),  when 
the  earliest  living  Form  must  have  appeared 
on  our  planet.  We  have  often  noted  how  Na- 
ture, being  the  absolutely  separated  stage  of 
the  Absolute,  carries  out  to  the  last  degree 
of  fineness  her  principle  of  separation,  which 
is  verily  her  deepest  creative  character.  Such 
is  the  ultimate  ground  of  individuation  in  the 
widest  sense,  inorganic  as  well  as  organic, 
and  it  is  this  individuation  of  Nature  which 
gives  Form,  finally  the  animal  Form,  which 
still  further  culminates  in  the  human  Form. 

That  which  first  catches  the  eye  is  the 
Form  of  the  animal,  and  this  is  what  charac- 
terizes it  externally,  and  puts  it  within  cer- 
tain limits  or  outlines  not  to  be  essentially 
changed.  Every  species  has  its  basic  Form, 
into  which  each  individual  of  it  falls,  taking 
possession  of  it  naturally,  in  his  own  right. 
Undoubtedly  this  Form  varies,  no  two  indi- 
viduals of  the  same  species  are  alike;  then 
also  there  are  abnormal  variations,  mon- 


280         THE  BIOC08M08— PARTICULARIZED. 

strosities  in  which  the  mould  appears  to  be 
broken  in  places.  Still  Nature  pours  every 
living  individual,  Plant  or  Animal,  into  its 
fore-ordained  matrix,  within  which  it  has  on 
the  whole  very  slight  freedom  of  transforma- 
tion; its  external  shape  is  fated.  The  human 
Form  with  all  its  differences  is  fixed  on  a 
common  model,  which  without  question  has 
evolved,  from  lower  animals ;  indeed  scientists 
are  correlating  it  more  and  more  not  only 
with  monkeys  but  with  fishes  and  even  with 
worms.  Such  we  may  deem  the  primal  Fate 
of  Nature :  she  impresses  outer  Form  upon  all 
animate  existence — truly  her  first  act  of  in- 
dividualizing Life.  Man  has  to  submit  and 
to  accept  his  Form  as  imposed;  but  he  can 
ask  the  question:  Will  he  ever  be  able  to 
wrest  this  power  from  Nature  and  to  build 
his  own  outer  Form  in  correspondence  with 
his  inner  freedom?  It  is  said  that  this  pres- 
ent Form  of  his  is  the  highest  visible  manifes- 
tation of  Nature,  incorporating  a  gleam  of  the 
Divine  Idea,  and  thus  bringing  to  appearance 
the  Beautiful.  Or  we  may  say  that  this  hu- 
man framework  is  the  All- Self  (Pampsy- 
chosis),  revealed  in  the  supreme  shape  of  Na- 
ture. Hence  its  importance  in  Art,  wherein 
it  is  taken  to  manifest  the  Godlike. 

While  in  this  way  the  Animal  Form  is  fixed, 
it  is  internally  very  active,  always  reproduc- 


ANIMAL  LIFE— FORMATION.  281 

ing  itself.  As  living  it  must  be  re-making  it- 
self incessantly.  Each  organ  and  indeed  each 
cell  is  ever  bringing  forth  the  whole  organism 
which  brings  it  forth.  Every  part  is  both 
means  and  end,  the  maker  and  the  made,  with- 
in its  round  of  existence.  So  far  it  may  be 
deemed  self -end ;  still  it  is  not  the  finality,  it 
too  must  be  subsumed  under  something  high- 
er, being  a  link  in  the  great  evolutionary  chain 
of  Nature,  for  the  entire  chain  must  be  sub- 
sumed. 

The  Animal  Form  has  also  its  periods  of 
time  stamped  upon  it  indelibly — birth,  youth, 
maturation,  decline;  thus  it  has  its  temporal 
as  well  as  its  spatial  limits,  both  of  which  it 
posits  through  itself.  Such  we  may  deem  the 
leading  fact  in  this  sphere :  Form  is  imposed 
on  the  organism  from  without  by  Nature,  but 
must  be  re-imposed  by  the  organism  itself 
from  within — Nature's  gift  must  be  continu- 
ally confirmed  anew  by  the  recipient,  who  has 
to  make  over  into  his  own  his  external  de- 
termination. The  fateful  Form  must,  there- 
fore, be  always  reformed  and  renewed,  if  it 
is  to  live;  to  be  sure,  man  can  destroy  his 
life  at  a  stroke  and  turn  his  organism  back 
into  the  elements.  He  can  play  suicide  and 
become  anarchist  to  himself.  In  his  universal 
revolt  against  all  Form  transmitted  or  in- 
herited, he  may  conclude  to  direct  a  blow  at 


282        THE  BIOCOSMOS— PARTICULARIZED. 

his  own  Form,  which  has  heen  thrust  upon 
him  by  Nature  without  his  consent,  and  thus 
to  crown  his  negative  career  with  his  own 
final  negation. 

In  such  manner  the  Form  of  the  Animal  is 
cast  in  the  mould  of  the  species ;  each  individ- 
ual being  nearly,  yet  not  quite,  the  same.  But 
this  slight  variation  of  the  individual  accumu- 
lates with  the  lapse  of  many  generations,  and* 
makes  new  species ;  indeed  all  the  diversity  of 
animal  Forms  is  now. traced  to  the  one  pri- 
mordial Form  out  of  which  have  evolved  the 
rest.  Thus  the  individual,  if  time  enough  be 
given,  can  vary  his  mould  of  Form,  though 
he  cannot  break  out  of  it;  he  is  seen  to  be  a 
kind  of  Fate-compeller  even  within  the  limits 
of  Nature.  Darwinism  has  therein  given  a 
new  emphasis  to  the  individual.  But  to  this 
slow  variation  of  Darwin  has  now  been  added 
the  sudden  catastropic  variation  of  De  Vries 
(the  so-called  Mutation),  in  which  the  individ- 
ual may  beget  not  merely  another  of  the  same 
species,  but  of  a  wholly  new  species. 

1.  The  Animal  Organism  as  a  Whole. 
We  are  first  to  take  a  glance  at  the  animal 
Form  in  its  entirety  before  proceeding  to  its 
external  parts.  Choosing  man  as  the  typical 
Animal  toward  which  all  Life  has  evolved,  we 
observe  his  erect  posture — the  result  of  a  long 
development  in  which  the  extremities  (leg  and 


ANIMAL  LIFE— FORMATION.  283 

foot,  arm  and  hand),  have  become  differenti- 
ated into  separte  organs.  The  biologists  of 
today  are  trying  to  obliterate  the  distinction 
between  Bimana  and  Quadrumana  on  anatom- 
ical grounds;  still  the  outer  Form  asserts 
itself  and  stands  up.  That  is,  it  degravitates 
more  and  more  through  its  inner  force,  rising 
from  the  e.arth,  and  seemingly  therein  less 
fated.  But  the  animal  body  restores  the  line 
of  gravity  (in  walking  and  leaping),  it  re 
gravitates ;  thus  it  shows  the  power  of  locomo- 
tion, of  change  of  place,  in  distinction  from  the 
Plant,  which  is  rooted  to  one  spot,  though  it 
too  is  often  erect,  and  has  a  limited  power  of 
self -movement.  The  animal  Form  moves  as  a 
whole  and  localizes  itself,  occupying  a  new 
space,  while  the  Plant  is  localized  externally,, 
and  fixed  in  the  same  space. 

Thus  the  animal  Form  has  attained  a  cer- 
tain inner  supremacy  over  itself  and  shows 
a  Will,  yes  Free- Will,  even  if  incipient.  Self- 
active  from  within  we  see  the  animal  begin 
to  be,  and  thus  it  has  a  center  from  which  the 
total  Form  is  ruled.  The  Plant  is,  on  the 
other  hand,  inclined  to  be  multicentral,  with- 
out due  subordination  of  its  parts ;  each  organ 
tends  to  be  the  whole  of  which  it  is  but  an 
organ.  Here  again  we  may  recall  Goethe's 
aphorism:  "The  subordination  of  the  parts 
points  to  a  more  perfect  organism. " 


284        THE  BIOC03MOS—  PARTICULARIZED. 

To  be  sure,  there  is  a  long  line  of  these  or- 
ganic Forms  of  the  Animal  from  the  micro- 
scopic unicellular  blob  of  plasm,  up  to  the  di- 
versely associated  multicellular  Organism. 
Still  each  of  these  Forms  has  its  inner  organ- 
ization, even  if  at  first  largely  implicit,  till  at 
last  animal  Form  seems  to  have  become  fully 
explicit  in  man,  and  to  have  quite  exhausted 
its  trans-shaping  power  (see  preceding  pp.  39- 
41).  The  plastic  possibilities  of  the  original 
Life-stuff  have  been  realized  to  their  highest 
Form,  it  would  seem,  unless  man  himself  can 
take  Nature  in  hand  and  give  to  her  a  new 
lease  of  formative  power.  Hitherto  she  has 
simply  evolved  for  many  millions  of  years  her 
own  line  of  organisms  in  Plant  and  Animal, 
according  to  her  own  instinct.  Or  we  may 
conceive  that  the  sculptor  of  the  long  gallery 
of  animals,  who  is  none  other  than  Psyche, 
finds  no  longer  her  plastic  material  adequate 
to  her  needs,  and  must  transform  the  very 
Life-stuff  furnished  by  Nature.  Whispers 
concerning  something  of  this  sort  are  already 
in  the  air. 

It  is  declared  that  invisible  Life  in  general 
is  greater  quantitatively  than  visible,  and  that 
Forms  of  the  unseen  Animal  outbulk  the  seen. 
Moreover  this  world  of  animated  Forms  is  in 
a  perpetual  war  with  itself,  the  unicellular 
specially  with  the  multicellular  and  organized. 


ANIMAL  LIFE— FORMATION.  285 

Indeed  our  organism  begins  and  ends  with  a 
microbe,  and  thus  the  Form  of  the  higher  Ani- 
mal is  a  vast  organization  of  Forms  out  of 
which  it  is  evolved  and  to  which  it  is  resolved. 

The  universe  as  Pampsychosis  has  its 
counterpart,  but  still  its  part,  in  the  multi- 
verse  of  Nature,  whose  fundamental  trait  is 
this  individuation  of  Forms,  which  thus  reach 
down  to  the  bottom  of  creation.  But  next 
we  shall  take  one  of  these  typical  organic 
Forms  of  the  Animal  and  watch  it  dividing, 
that  is,  forming  within  itself. 

2.  The  Animal  Organism  in  Its  Dual  Sym- 
metry. That  the  higher  animal  is  halved 
lengthwise  and  that  these  halves  are  clapped 
together  into  the  one  living  organism  with  its 
process,  has  been  observed  by  most  people  on 
their  own  bodies.  This  is  known  as  bi-lateral 
symmetry,  which  is  so  prominent  in  the  hu- 
man organism,  wherein  Nature  seems  to  be 
pushing  her  dualism  to  its  extreme  embodi- 
ment in  order  to  make  the  completer  unity  of 
Form.  A  perpetual  interchange  and  coales- 
cence are  going  on  between  these  opposite 
yet  symmetrical  parts,  ever  overcoming  their 
separation,  yet  positing  it  again.  The  fact 
suggests,  indeed  adumbrates,  the  psychical 
process  of  division  and  return,  though  it  is 
not  yet  the  Ego.  The  conceived  line  of  .de- 
marcation is  called  the  median  line,  halving 


286        THE  BIOCOSMOS— PARTICULARIZED. 

the  organism  fore  and  aft  into  its  two  sym- 
metrical sides,  and  therein  duplicating  wholly 
or  partially  many  organs  of  the  body.  This 
bi-lateral  symmetry  becomes  less  pronounced 
as  we  descend  in  the  scale  of  the  animal  world; 
seemingly  it  evolves  with  the  ascent  manward. 

The  Plant  divides  otherwise,  though  it  too 
has  its  symmetrical  counterparts,  separating 
and  growing  upward  and  downward,  at  the 
ends  not  at  the  sides — which  we  may  call  bi- 
terminal  symmetry.  Moreover  it  strives  out- 
ward, in  root  and  branch  and  also  in  stem, 
spreading  from  its'  germinal  center  toward 
the  external  elements.  But  the  two  halves  of 
the  animal  organism,  even  while  growing  out- 
wardly, turn  inwardly  to  each  other  and  form 
their  organic  unity,  centripetal  rather  than 
centrifugal,  determined  from  within  more 
than  from  without.  Manifestly  the  Animal  is 
getting  self-centered  within  its  own  Form, 
though  it  as  a  whole  has  to  obey  gravitation. 
This  organic  concentration  of  the  Animal  cul- 
minates in  its  central  organ,  the  brain,  which, 
however,  still  shows  the  bi-lateral  division  in 
its  two  lobes. 

In  addition  to  this  bi-lateralism  the  organ- 
ism of  the  Animal  has  its  dorsal  and  ventral 
sides,  very  different  from  each  other,  indeed 
not  symmetrical.  This  difference  is  not  pro- 
nounced in  the  lower  animals,  though  it  has 


ANIMAL  LIFE— FORMATION.  287 

begun.  The  vertebral  column  determines  es- 
pecially the  dorsal  part  and  protects  it  pass- 
ively, while  the  fleshy  ventral  part  has  active 
protection  (arms  and  feet,  senses,  etc.).  Again 
we  see  that  Life  unifies  Nature's  twofold- 
ness;  the  outside  is  dual,  but  the  process  is 
one.  We  shall  find  that  bi-lateralism  reaches 
some  of  the  bodily  organs  and  not  others ;  the 
ground  of  such  a  distinction  is  suggestive  and 
will  be  touched  upon  later,  when  we  have  seen 
the  prime  organic  differentiation  of  the  Ani- 
mal Form. 

3.  The  Animal  Organism  Differentiated. 
From  the  foregoing  dual  formation  of  the  Or- 
ganism we  return  to  the  latter  as  a  whole  for 
the  purpose  of  considering  its  constituent 
parts — Trunk,  Extremities  and  Head.  Now 
each  of  these  parts  has  its  own  bi-lateral  sym- 
metry, though  they  are  not  symmetrical  with 
one  another.  The  three  are  constituents  of 
one  animal  Form  which  is  continually  repro- 
ducing itself  through  nutrition.  Each  has  its 
own  character  and  connection  with  total  Life : 
the  Trunk  is  in  general  directed  inward  and  is 
more  vegetal,  the  Extremities  are  directed 
outward  with  power  of  self -movement  and  are 
more  animal,  the  Head  is  the  rounding  out  of 
the  organism  externally  and  internally,  being 
directive  and  self-directive,  and  so  is  in  itself 
more  mental.  Thus  the  human  organism  is  a 


288        THE  BIOCO'SMOS— PARTICULARIZED. 

resumption  of  all  former  Life,  even  that  of  the 
Plant,  on  which  it  largely  feeds,  a  kind  of  re- 
capitulation of  vital  forms  from  the  proto- 
plasmic starting-point.  What  a  museum  of 
antiquities  is  dug  out 'of  our  body  by  the  evo- 
lutionist, far  more  varied  and  older  than 
those  of  Troy  and  Mycenae !  And  still  the  ex- 
cavation is  going  on  with  new  discoveries. 

Thus  the  Formative  Process  of  Animal  Life 
returns  to  its  very  beginning  and  re-enacts 
its  whole  evolutionary  history  in  each  individ- 
ual, which  physically  bears  in  itself  what  its 
race  has  gone  through  and  transcended.  The 
Form  is  the  storehouse  of  the  archives  of  its 
past ;  so  much  we  can  see,  even  if  the  record 
has  just  begun  to  be  deciphered.  The  outer 
differentiation  of  the  animal  Organism  just 
cited  indicates  three  great  stages  of  Life 's  de- 
velopment  which  are  now  organically  united 
in  the  one  process  of  the  Animal  as  a  whole. 

At  present,  then,  we  have  to  consider  this 
outer  differentiation  which  helps  us  organize 
first  the  animal  F^orm — Trunk,  Extremities 
and  Head.  Now  these,  in  contrast  to  bi-lateral 
symmetry,  may  be  deemed  a  division  cross- 
wise rather  than  lengthwise,  the  threefold  in- 
stead of  the  twofold  division — the  arm  being 
somewhat  refractory,  having  evolved  to  a 
member  distinct  from  the  leg.  Of  course  we 
have  in  mind  the  typical  human  organism,  to- 


ANIMAL  LIFE— FORMATION.  £89 

ward  which  all  living  shapes  are  advancing 
and  which  is  their  explanation.  These  parts 
cannot  be  called  symmetrical,  not  any  two  of 
them,  but  rather  the  contrary ;  their  relation- 
ship is  far  more  internal  than  external.  It 
should  be  added  that  their  order  is  signifi- 
cant ;  though  the  head  is  on  top,  it  is  not  first 
in  an  evolutionary  or  psychical  succession ;  the 
Animal  starts  with  a  trunk  in  the  cell,  or  for 
example,  in  the  Amceba;  the  head  proper 
comes  last.  So  we  think  of  this  triune  se- 
quence of  the  divisions  of  the  animal  Form 
as  Trunk,  Extremities  and  Head.  Iu  the 
present  sphere  the  main  correspondence  be- 
tween the  Plant  and  Animal  lies  between  the 
Trunk  of  the  one  and  the  Stem  of  the  other ; 
both  are  in  the  middle,  both  are  one  and  un- 
divided in  form,  both  show  a  cylindrical  ten- 
dency, both  separate  into  limbs  downward 
and  upward,  out  of  both  evolve  the  other  two 
parts.  The  Trunk  of  the  Animal  and  the 
Stem  of  the  Plant  were  originally  one  and 
probably  undifferentiated  in  the  primal  ele- 
mental Life-stuff  (Protobioticon),  in  which 
their  germinal  separation  must  have  taken 
place  into  Protozoa  and  Protophyta  (for 
example,  into  the  Amceba,  the  unicellular  ani- 
mal and  the  Bacterion,  the  unicellular  plant, 
though  biologists  still  differ  about  these  char- 
acteristics.) Here  we  again  remind  the  reader 


290        THE  BIOCOSMOS— PARTICULARIZED. 

that  this  earliest  Life-stuff  is  an  hypothesis 
(like  Ether) ;  also  its  first  differentiation  into 
Plant  and  Animal  has  never  been  witnessed, 
and  probably  will  require  other  means  for  its 
detection  than  the  microscope — perchance  a 
new  sort  of  spectroscope. 

These  three  parts  of  animal  Form  have  had, 
accordingly,  a  very  significant  evolution,  both 
separately  and  together.  The  Trunk  even  in 
man  remains  nearest  to  the  vegetal  form  and 
character.  Eespiration,  Digestion,  Circula- 
tion, which  take  place  in  the  Trunk  of  the  hu- 
man organism  belong  to  the  Plant  also,  which 
has  not  the  Head  with  its  controlling  brain, 
nor  the  controlled  Extremities.  In  fact  it  took 
ages  of  evolution  for  the  rising  Animal  to 
throw  off  the  Plant-form.  After  the  Protozoa 
there  is  a  long  line  of  living  shapes  which 
though  animal  in  function  are  more  or  less 
vegetal  externally — sponges,  star-fish,  echino- 
derms,  even  some  of  the  mollusks.  These  may 
be  well  designated  as  the  transitional  Plant 
animals,  being  animal  in  essence  but  plant  in 
appearance.  It  would  seem  that  animal  Form 
was  of  far  slower  evolution  than  animal  Life. 
The  first  living  thing  to  develop  out  of  the 
original  Life-stuff  was  probably  a  Plant, 
which  differentiated  in  time  self-movement 
and  sensation  and  became  an  Animal,  though 
preserving  relatively  its  own  shape.  The  en- 


ANIMAL  LIFE— FORMATION.  291 

tire  lower  orders  of  Animals  indicate  still 
such  a  condition,  and  there  is  no  reason  why 
the  evolution  should  not  be  going  on  now,  even 
if  we  may  not  be  able  to  detect  it  at  some 
points,  especially  at  the  beginning. 

At  each  of  these  parts  we  may  take  a  sep- 
arate glance,  not  forgetting  that  they  belong 
together  physically,  yea  psychically  in  one 
process. 

The  Trunk,  then,  is  to  be  taken  first,  being 
still  a  kind  of  enlarged  cell  both  in  shape 
and  function,  a  huge  sac  containing  the  or- 
gans of  Assimilation  which  have  been  evolved 
from  the  earliest  activities  of  the  cell.  Bi- 
lateral symmetry  is  stamped  upon  the  Trunk 
externally,  but  not  to  the  point  of  separating 
the  two  sides,  which  still  make  one  concrete 
form.  Internally  the  twofoldness  of  the  Or- 
ganism manifests  itself  in  many  gradations, 
even  to  the  doubling  of  the  organs,  which, 
however,  co-operate  symmetrically  (for  ex- 
ample, the  lungs).  Still  many  of  its  organs 
are  single.  The  Trunk  is  more  the  vegetal 
part  of  the  human  Organism ;  like  the  Plant 
it  has  its  controlling  principle  outside  of  it- 
self; that  is,  its  organs  have  their  final  seat 
of  authority  in  the  Head  with  its  brain.  Will 
the  human  Trunk,  having  reached  its  present 
stage  after  aeons  of  development,  perchance 
from  the  originallPlant-cell,  undergo  still  fur- 


292        THE  BIOCOSMOS— PARTICULARIZED. 

ther  development?  The  remorseless  logic  of 
Evolution  would  seem  to  demand  that  all  Life 
be  hurled  into  its  seething  process;  man's 
body  is  to  continue  its  transformation  in  the 
future  as  in  the  past.  Some  have  thought  that 
it  is  already  completed,  having  risen  so  far 
from  its  first  protoplasmic  stuff;  but  who  is 
going  to  cry  halt  to  Evolution  ? 

The  Trunk  is,  accordingly,  the  primal  most 
elemental  part  of  the  human  Form.  As  the 
Plant  largely  sustains  the  Animal,  so  the  seat 
of  sustenance  in  the  body  is  its  vegetal  por- 
tion, the  Trunk,  which  is  thus  the  purveyor 
for  the  higher  activities  of  the  brain,  in  due 
obedience  to  the  same.  To  be  sure,  the  Trunk 
with  its  nutritive  purpose  can  get  the  upper 
hand  of  the  whole  Organism,  and  subject  the 
Head,  the  master.  But  that  is  sickness,  physi- 
cal or  moral,  or  both. 

Next  we  are  to  see  the  implicit  and  undivid- 
ed doubleness  of  the  Trunk  dividing  and  be- 
coming twain,  indeed  two  sets  of  twains  in  the 
two  kinds  of  paired  Extremities,  which  shoot 
off  from  the  Trunk  like  roots  and  branches, 
though  directed  from  a  new  center,  the  brain. 
The  Trunk  of  the  Animal  is  the  stem  of  the 
tree,  whose  leaves  are  now  internalized  as 
lungs,  and  whose  roots  are  also  inside  as  in- 
testines. Even  the  human  Trunk  cannot  re- 
move itself,  so  vegetal  is  it,  but  has  to  be 


ANIMAL  LIFE— FORMATION.  293 

moved  by  the  feet  and  hands,  which  have  in 
themselves  a  stage  self-movement  and  so  are 
distinctly  animal,  being  controlled  directly  or 
voluntarily  by  the  central  organ. 

The  Lower  and  the  Upper  Extremities  they 
are  usually  called,  as  they  shoot  out  from  the 
lower  and  upper  sides  of  the  Trunk.  Bi-lat- 
eral  symmetry  of  the  one  member  now  be- 
comes two-membered,  doubly  so;  each  side 
rays  forth  separately  above  and  below.  The 
bond  which  held  the  double  Trunk  together 
seems  to  break,  and  from  each  of  its  four 
corners  it  throws  a  limb.  At  this  point  the 
vegetal  nature  of  the  animal  Trunk  is  again 
suggested,  though  the  root  and  the  branch 
have  undergone  a  unique  evolution  into  the 
leg  with  foot  and  the  arm  with  hand.  Of  these 
the  former  still  steadies  and  connects  the 
Trunk  with  the  earth,  though  not  fixing  the 
same  therein;  the  latter  still  extends  its  flat 
leaf-like  palms,  though  with  the  added  power 
of  grasping. 

The  hand  was  once  taken  as  the  distinctive 
mark  of  the  human  species  (hence  called  Bi- 
mana),  in  contrast  with  next  lower  species  of 
animals.  The  hand  and  the  foot  in  their  sep- 
arate forms  are  connected  with  the  erect  posi- 
tion of  man.  From  the  beginning  of  the  ani- 
mal Form,  it  must  have  had  the  impulse  to- 
ward elevating  its  head  and  standing  upright. 


294        THE  BIOCOSMOS— PARTICULARIZED. 

Various  reasons  of  utility  may  be  assigned 
for  the  change,  but  the  chief  ground  is  the 
greater  freedom,  toward  which  the  Animal 
and  indeed  all  Nature  are  ever  evolving,  by 
increase  in  self-controlling  and  therewith  in 
other-controlling.  A  second  differentiation 
of  the  Extremities  is  into  fingers  and  toes, 
and  in  case  of  the  hand  specially  the  third  is 
seen  in  the  thumb  and  digits,  which  distinc- 
tion is  slightly  indicated  also  in  the  foot. 

In  general  the  principle  of  separation  and 
differentiation  characterizes  the  Extremities 
which  have  separated  from  the  Trunk  and 
have  become  external  to  it,  though  still 
attached  to  it.  So  they  in  accord  with  their 
principle  keep  on  separating  till  the  two  arms 
unfold  into  a  difference  of  their  own  as  right 
and  left.  Herein  we  may  see  that  the  Plant 
with  root  and  branch  is  not  only  homologous 
but  remotely  kindred,  possibly  ancestral. 
Thus  the  Upper  Extremities  carry  differentia- 
tion considerably  further  than  the  Lower,  and 
are  much  more  versatile  in  their  activity,  not 
having  to  carry  the  organism  (like  the  legs), 
but  to  mediate  it  in  great  detail  with  the  outer 
world,  being  relieved  of  the  heavy,  burden- 
bearing  work.  The  arm  (especially  the  right 
one),  is  a  skilled,  light-moving  workman, 
while  the  leg  is  a  muscular,  strong,  but  plod- 
ding day-laborer. 


ANIMAL  LIFE— FORMATION.  295 

Peculiarly  is  the  Hand  the  quick  and  con- 
fidential servant  of  the  Head  even  in  the  mat- 
ter of  gesture,  which  often  tells  or  emphasizes 
what  the  brain  is  doing.  The  one  indeed  is 
an  outer  echo  of  the  other  and  sometimes  has 
to  take  its  place  in  the  language  of  signs  (for 
instance,  in  the  case  of  deaf-mutes  and  of 
Southern  Italians).  Thus  the  Hand  becomes 
a  great  instrument  of  association.  Indeed 
automatically  the  Hand  thinks  with  the 
orator,  the  actor,  the  performer  on  a  musical 
instrument — a  second  brain-center.  But  there 
must  be  a  first  center  of  the  kind,  in  fact  the 
center  of  the  entire  system,  to  which  all  these 
differentiated  Extremities  return  for  control, 
and  which  returns  into  itself  for  self-control. 
So  we  come  to  consider  the  third  part  of  the 
Formative  Process  of  the  Animal,  which  can 
only  be  the  Head. 

This  is  in  shape  and  character  the  concen- 
tration of  the  human  organism,  indeed  of  all 
organisms  from  the  humblest  to  the  highest. 
It  moves  toward  rotundity  through  the  Verte- 
brates, even  through  the  Primates.  The  body 
becomes  sphered  in  the  Head,  centralized  and 
rounded  off  in  one  of  its  parts,  which  is  the 
seat  of  control,  not  merely  of  its  own  organ- 
ism but  of  all  Life.  If  we  conceive  the  total 
Plant-world  and  the  total  Animal-world  as 
one  huge  living  thing,  it  would  have  the  hu- 


296        THE  BIOC08M08— PARTICULARIZED. 

man  Head  which  it  has  evolved  as  its  ruler. 
To  be  sure  all  Life  would  be  thus  a  many- 
headed  beast,  1,700,000,000  such  heads  being 
on  our  earth  according  to  statistical  estimate. 

The  Head  is,  accordingly,  the  opposite  of 
the  Extremities,  which  are  the  separated, 
the  decentered  element  of  the  animal  Form, 
and  which  are  specially  directed  from  the 
brain.  They  have  the  prolonged  cylindrical 
tendency  even  to  the  fingers'  ends ;  their  outer 
shape  is  thus  like  the  Trunk,  only  more 
lengthened  and  lengthening.  But  from  the 
drawn-out  cylinder  we  pass  to  the  concentra- 
tion of  the  sphere,  the  Head,  which  is  the  em- 
bodied center  of  the  total  body,  containing  the 
central  organ  of  the  whole  organism.  So  we 
conceive  the  circuit  of  the  animal  Form  in  its 
triune  order — Trunk,  Extremities,  Head — 
suggesting  outwardly  the  inner  Process  of  the 
Organism,  and  more  remotely  of  the  Psyche, 
which  stamps  itself  even  upon  the  external 
shape. 

The  Formative  Process  of  Animal-life,  as 
it  unfolds  through  the  individual  and  organ- 
izes itself  in  him,  we  have  now  witnessed  in  its 
outer  manifestation,  which  is  also  the  reality 
and  the  impress  of  the  inner  type  or  norm. 
The  final  shape,  the  Head,  we  may  well  deem 
not  only  the  topping-out  of  the  animal  world 
but  of. the  entire  Biocosmos,  in  a  new  kind  of 


AKIMAL  LIFE— ASSIMILATION.  297 

sphere — a  form  which  recalls  the  total  Earth- 
life  and  likewise  the  microscopic  beginning, 
the  cell.  The  Head  we  may  think  as  clapped 
on  a  tree-trunk  (vegetal),  which  throws  off 
self-moving  limbs  in  the  Extremities  (ani- 
mal), which,  however,  are  directed  from  the 
top  (mental).  Such  is  the  pyramid  of  Forms 
from  base  to  apex  which  we  may  see  in  the 
human  organism,  a  re-incarnation  of  the  total 
line  of  evolution  from  start  to  completion. 

The  Process  of  the  animal  Form  takes  the 
organism  in  its  immediate  appearance,  as 
space-occupying;  but  in  this  appearance  is  to 
be  seen  the  external  manifestation  of  the  in- 
ner idea  of  the  Animal.  Now  this  Form  is 
something  given,  already  made;  so  we  ask 
what  makes  it  or  forms  it,  putting  it  into  this 
pre-established  mould  or  type?  Animal-life 
which  keeps  re-forming  itself,  must  be  con- 
tinuously sustained  from  the  outside.  This 
brings  us  to  a  new  Process  of  Animal-life,  the 
second. 

II.  THE  ASSIMILATIVE  PEOCESS  OF  ANIMAL 
LIFE.  The  first  fact  which  strikes  us  in  this 
new  stage  is  its  specialization  into  a  large 
number  of  organs.  The  living  organism  is 
now  organized  in  the  greatest  detail.  Life  in 
order  to  seize  and  assimilate  the  outer  world 
employs  an  enormous  variety  of  implements, 
which  we  at  present  have  to  classify  accord- 


298        THE  BIOCOSM08— PARTICULARIZED. 

ing  to  some  principle  of  unity.  This  is,  there- 
fore, peculiarly  the  field  of  organic  separ- 
ation of  the  animal  body,  which  may  be  taken 
as  sort  of  workshop  or  laboratory  with  a 
vast  diversification  and  refinement  of  appara- 
tus. Still  the  unitary  principle  of  the  huge 
establishment  must  at  least  be  striven  for, 
and  perchance  we  may  glimpse  the  process 
of  the  whole  and  of  its  leading  parts. 

Evidently  the  Form  of  Life  in  order  to 
keep  itself  alive  must  take  and  appropriate 
what  is  different  from  itself ;  it  has  to  tackle 
the  external  world,  and  in  its  way  conquer 
the  same.  Here  then,  enters  the  stage  of  dif- 
ference, of  conflict — the  separative  stage  of 
Animal  life,  which  we  call  Assimilation  in  its 
widest  sense. 

The  Animal  assails  Nature  in  her  three 
kingdoms — inorganic,  vegetable  and  animal, 
making  them  over  into  its  own  self  as  or- 
ganism, which  thus  gets  the  power  of  main- 
taining its  ever-flowing  circuit  of  bodily  re- 
production. The  Animal  assimilates  the  ele- 
ments— air,  water  and  some  earth;  but  its 
chief  food  is  the  Plant,  thus  assimilating 
what  has  been  already  once  assimilated  and 
transformed  from  the  elements  into  life.  Still 
further,  the  Animal  assimilates  the  Animal 
often,  thus  feeding  upon  a  double  previous  as- 
similation, that  of  both  Plant  and  Animal. 


AXIMAL  LIFE— ASSIMILATION.  299 

Edible  meat  has  both  these  characters  in  it, 
and  when  it  is  eaten,  one  may  suppose  that 
it  has  the  tendency  to  impart  the  special  pow- 
ers of  Animal-life  with 'increased  efficiency, 
for  instance  sensation  and  self-movement,  and 
doubtless  volition.  Purely  Plant-consuming 
peoples  would  seem  to  be  more  like  the  Plant, 
with  its  single  assimilation.  The  carnivorous 
animals  are  fiercer,  have  more  will-power  than 
the  herbivorous.  Animal  evolution  moves 
through  flesh-consumers,  that  is,  the  consum- 
ers of  food  already  "doubly  assimilated.  If 
the  first  living  thing  was  a  Plant,  there  must 
have  come  the  stage  when  the  Plant  began 
already  to  devour  the  Plant  and  thus  to  turn 
Animal.  Possibly  this  has  something  to  do 
with  that  primal  differentiation  of  Life  into 
Plant  and  Animal,  or  the  transition  from  one 
to  the  other  in  the  primeval  protoplasm. 

Accordingly  man  (unless  he  be  a  vegeta- 
rian) in  his  appropriation  of  the  external 
world  for  sustenance,  takes  up  the  unassimi- 
lated  element,  the  once  assimilated  vegetable, 
and  the  twice  assimilated  animal.  All  three 
he  transforms  into  his  body  in  order  to  live ; 
he  cannot  now  be  nourished  by  the  Inorganic 
alone,  as  the  Plant  is,  yet  with  some  special 
exceptions;  nor  on  the  Plant  alone  as  some 
animals  are;  nor  on  flesh  alone;  he  has  prop- 
erly to  go  through  the  whole  process  of  the 


300        THE  BlOCOffMOS— PARTICULARIZED. 

Life-world  as  to  diet  in  its  ascent  to  him- 
self, with  its  three  assimilations,  the  last  one 
being  his  own.  Thus  man  already  eats  large- 
ly pre-digested  food;  nature  for  millions  of 
years  has  been  preparing  his  table,  and  so 
to  speak  cooking  his  dinner  of  meat  and  veg- 
etables. Man's  nutriment  is,  therefore,  the 
result  of  a3ons  of  evolution ;  seemingly  start- 
ing from  that  first  push  out  of  the  Inorganic 
to  the  Organic.  Also  his  organs  of  Assimil- 
ation have  been  adjusted  to  his  gradually 
evolving  diet,  and  have  evolved  in  proportion. 
Each  human  organ  has,  accordingly,  its  evo- 
lution, which  can  often  be  traced  backward 
through  the  line  of  animals  to  the  protozoon, 
perchance  even  into  the  protophyte.  In  the 
simple  act  of  eating  his  meals,  man  partakes 
of  the  total  development  of  the  living  things 
of  this  earth,  he  appropriates  to  himself  a  bit 
of  Life  universal. 

It  may  be  stated  here  that  Assimilation  as 
now  used,  means  the  reproduction  of  the  same 
organism  as  already  given  and  existent,  not 
the  reproduction  of  another  organism  or  a 
new  individual.  The  latter  belongs  to  a  dif- 
ferent Process,  that  of  Generation.  The  term 
reproduction  is  often  applied  to  both  Pro- 
cesses, the  assimilative  and  the  generative, 
and  must  be  employed  with  care  to  avoid  am- 
biguity. Still  the  thought  of  Life's  repro- 


ANIMAL  LIFE— ASSIMILATION.  3Q1 

duction  is  itself  double,  being  on  the  one 
hand  the  renewal  of  the  body  within  itself 
(self-regarding),  but  also  the  renewal  of  the 
body  in  a  different  individual  (other-regard- 
ing). Thus  we  see  Assimilation  and  Gener- 
1  ation  tied  together  both  in  word  and  thought. 

The  association  of  cells  into  the  organ  has 
been  repeatedly  noted  in  the  previous  account, 
and  their  peculiar  power  of  adjustment.  But 
here  the  remarkable  fact  is  the  association 
of  organs  into  the  highest  organism  of  Na- 
ture, correlated  and  co-operant  in  one  living 
body  which,  however,  in  its  turn  will  show 
the  same  associative  principle.  Animals  form 
societies,  not  merely  those  of  one  species  but 
of  different  species,  till  man  enters  and  caps 
the  associative  gift  of  Nature  with  his  social 
institutions.  Beginning  with  the  cell  animal 
life  has  shown  a  never-ceasing  push  for  as- 
sociation ;  and  the  same  has  been  already  no- 
ticed in  the  Plant-world.  This  inner  bent  or 
propensity  of  all  Life — What  is  it?  Whence? 
Whither?  Already  we  have  challenged  the 
work  of  that  unseen  Psyche  lurking  in  the 
seen  forms  of  Physis  everywhere  and  driving 
it  forward  step  by  step  toward  an  end— truly 
the  end  of  all  Nature,  which  is  to  transcend 
Nature. 

At  present,  however,  the  vast  organic  va- 
riety of  animal  Assimilation  is  before  us  for 


302        THE  BIOCOSMOS— PARTICULARIZED. 

some  kind  of  ordering,  which  may  carry  a  lit- 
tle light  through  this  chaos  of  particular  or- 
gans. In  the  preceding  process  of  animal 
Form,  we  specially  characterized  the  Trunk, 
in  its  outer  relations;  but  now  we  are  to  see 
it  as  the  chief  seat  of  inner  Assimilation, 
vegetal  in  shape  and  function.  It  is  the  part 
which  ingests  and  digests  and  distributes  the 
material  brought  to  it  from  the  outside,  work- 
ing internally  and  immediately  through  inter- 
nal organs.  Such  is  the  first  stage  of  what  we 
here  designate  as  the  assimilative  Process 
of  Animal-life,  its  most  direct,  immediate 
phase,  making  the  outer  and  different  into  the 
inner  and  similar.  But  now  comes  the  oppo- 
site act  of  Assimilation;  it  produces  also  or- 
gans directed  outwardly,  which  have  to  meet 
the  hostile  external  world  with  both  defense 
and  offense — warding  off  its  attacks  as  well 
as  seizing  a  portion  of  it  for  food.  But  this 
is  not  all:  the  organism,  to  be  directed  out- 
wardly for  its  own  end,  must  be  centralized 
in  an  organ,  the  brajn,  which  directs  inward- 
ly as  well  as  outwardly,  and  which  thus  be- 
comes the  center  of  the  Organism  as  self- 
directed,  which  term  expresses  its  supreme 
attribute  in  the  present  field. 

We  may  in  brief  recapitulate  the  three 
stages  of  the  Process  of  Assimilation :  the 
Organism  as  inwardly  directed  (1)  as  out- 


ANIMAL  LIFE— ASSIMILATION.  393 

wardly  directed  (2),  as  self -directed  (3).  The 
work  of  each  of  these  stages  embraces  a  num- 
ber of  organs  which  likewise  must  have  their 
processes  larger  and  smaller.  Here  only  a 
few  of  these  can  be  given,  since  they  are  spe- 
cialized almost  to  infinity.  But  at  present 
we  are  to  grasp  in  advance  the  sweep  of  As- 
similation: from  seizing  and  swallowing  the 
object  to  sensing  it  with  vision,  from  a  real  to 
an  ideal  appropriation  of  it,  from  assimilat- 
ing it  destructively  with  mouth  and  stomach 
to  assimilating  it  constructively  with  the  eye, 
which  is  also  an  assimilative  organ  of  the 
higher  animal.  Such  is  the  middle  or  medi- 
ating process  of  Aniinal-life,  which  we  shall 
now  set  forth  in  its  more  obvious  factors. 

1.  The  Organism  Inwardly  Directed. 
Taking  the  human  body  in  the  work  of  As-, 
similation.  we  observe  that  its  primary  direc- 
tion is  inward  from  the  outside ;  it  turns  from 
the  external  world  to  its  own  fabric  with  some 
article  of  food,  which  is  pre-supposed,  is  got- 
ten, and  is  internalized  into  the  living  struc- 
ture. Such  is  its  immediate  dominating  fact, 
that  of  sustenance,  which  it  cannot  obtain 
from  itself  permanently,  but  must  seize  and 
appropriate  as  its  other,  as  its  opposite.  The 
unicellular  organism  is  practically  all  stom- 
ach, which  has  a  certain  ability  to  make  itself 
into  other  organs  according  to  its  ueeci,  being 


304        TJ1E  BIOCOSM08— PARTICULARIZED. 

implicitly  the  whole  of  them.  The  immediate 
material  taken  is  not  entirely  used ;  it  is  ana- 
lyzed, separated  into  the  useful  and  useless, 
the  latter  being  finally  thrown  off  as  waste. 

First  in  order  comes  the  Digestive  System 
in  its  entirety,  which  embraces  a  flexible  line 
of  organs  strung  along  and  connected  with 
the  alimentary  canal,  through  which  the  food 
passes  from  stage  to  stage  undergoing  many 
changes,  as  if  in  a  chemical  laboratory.  The 
mouth  starts  with  the  first  act  of  division 
which  the  teeth  continue,  till  mingled  with 
saliva  the  first  pulp  is  formed  and  driven 
down  the  oesophagus.  In  the  stomach  the 
chyme  is  prepared  by  additional  processes, 
and  then  follows  the  chyle,  a  milky  mass 
which  the  intestinal  absorbents  separate,  tak- 
ing up  the  nutritious  part  and  passing  it  into 
the  blood,  while  the  non-nutritious  part  is 
rejected.  Physiologists  say  that  the  proteids 
and  sugars  '(carbo-hydrates)  are  stored  first 
in  the  liver  whose  automatic  action  turns  them 
over  to  the  blood  gradually,  as  they  may  be 
needed;  while  the 'food-fats  pass  by  their  own 
line  into  the  blood.  At  any  rate  the  end  of  the 
Digestive  System  is  attained  when  the  prod- 
uct of  all  its  manifold  organs  is  turned  into 
the  circulation. 

The  next  fact,  accordingly,  is  the  distribu- 
tion of  the  digested  aliment  to  the  every  point 


ANIMAL  LIFE—ASSIMILATION.  395 

of  the  organism,  which  feeds  on  it.  This  is 
done  by  the  Circulatory  System,  whose  chief 
function  is  to  divide  up  and  to  apportion  what 
it  receives  from  digestion.  Two  fluid  mate- 
rials are  poured  into  it:  the  newly  digested 
chyle  and  the  old  venous  blood.  There  seems 
a  tendency  to  duplicate  the  organs  in  this 
system,  in  contrast  with  single  organs  of  the 
Digestive  System. 

Circulation  starts  with  the  lungs  in  which 
aeration  of  the  blood  takes  place;  this  gets 
oxygen  and  can  burn,  releasing  force  like  the 
heat  of  coal.  Then  this  fire-bearing  fluid 
(temperature  normally  a  little  less  than  100 
degrees)  is  pumped  by  the  heart  to  every 
part  of  the  body  through  the  arterial  pipes. 
Passing  into  and  out  of  the  capillaries  quite 
extinguished,  some  of  it  returns  to  its  source 
for  a  new  oxidation  through  the  air. 

The  blood  is  constituted  of  a  watery  part 
(plasma)  in  which  float  three  kinds  of  solids: 
corpuscles,  red  and  white,  and  the  so-called 
platelets.  The  white  corpuscles,  under  the 
name  of  phagocytes  are  now  regarded  as  the 
standing  army  of  the  organism,  whose  duty 
it  is  to  assail  and  destroy  the  intruding  foes, 
especially  the  bacteria  who  are  always  mak- 
ing incursions.  Sometimes  one  side  and 
sometimes  the  other  is  defeated  with  the  cor- 
responding result  of  health  or  disease.  Also 


306        THE  BIOCOSHOS— PARTICULARIZED. 

the  white  corpuscles  perform  the  function  of 
police  and  remove  all  disturbing  substances. 
Malarial  fever  is  produced  in  the  blood  by  a 
parasite  which  comes  from  the  bite  of  a  cer- 
tain kind  of  mosquito  (anopheles).  The  aver- 
age man  contains  about  six  quarts  of  blood. 
Noteworthy  is  the  fact  that  the  organs  of 
circulation,  lungs,  heart,  blood-vessels,  have 
the  tendency  to  be  double  in  correspondence 
with  the  bi-lateral  symmetry  of  the  whole 
body.  On  the  other  hand  the  organs  of  di- 
gestion have  the  tendency  to  be  single  (stom- 
ach, pancreas,  spleen,  liver  though  lobed,  and 
the  intestinal  canal,  though  of  several  sizes 
and  forms).  Digestion  is  a  more  primitive, 
vegetal  function  than  circulation  of  the  blood. 
Also  the  digestive  organs  seem  on  the  whole 
less  amenable  to  .the  central  organ  (brain) 
than  the  circulatory,  in  which  fact  the  Plant 
is  again  suggested.  The  word  circulation  im- 
plies the  circular  movement,  which  is  in  de- 
cided contrast  with  the  digestive  movement. 
Connected  with  the  round  of  the  blood  is 
the  lymphatic  circulation,  which  starts  in  the 
capillaries  with  the  watery  part  of  the  blood 
(plasma),  and  floats  in  a  perpetual  bath  the 
cells  of  various  tissues,  bringing  to  them  nour- 
ishment as  well  as  carrying  off  their  waste. 
The  lymph  is  always  accompanied  by  some 
soldiers,  the  white  corpuscles  (the  aforesaid 


ANIMAL  LIFE— ASSIMILATION.  397 

phagocytes),  for  the  evident  purpose  of  at- 
tacking any  foreign  trespasser,  bacterion  or 
other  assailant,  who  may  be  met  with  on  the 
way.  The  lymphatic  vessels,  after  completing 
the  round  of  the  body  are  collected  into  two 
main  ducts  which  empty  into  the  jugular 
veins,  whence  is  repeated  the  cycle  through, 
the  blood,  capillaries  and  lymph.  Thus  the 
Circulatory  System  as  a  whole  is  composed 
of  three  parts,  arterial,  venous,  lymphatic. 
The  perfect  blood,  flowing  to  the  capillaries, 
does  there  its  work,  and  is  separated  into  its 
venous  and  lymphatic  parts,  each  of  which 
in  its  way  returns  to  the  primal  perfect 
blood  by  a  new  distribution  through  lungs, 
heart,  arteries.  Such  we  may  call  the  process 
of  circulation  whose  function  is  to  distribute 
in  its  round  the  store  of  sustenance  prepared 
by  digestion.  The  Circulatory  System  is 
thus  a  kind  of  middle-man  or  mediator  to  the 
Organism,  strictly  producing  no  food,  though 
cooking  it  over,  and  then  carrying  it  to  the 
consumer.  Compared  to  the  social  order,  di- 
gestion is  the  farmer,  while  circulation  is  the 
merchant.  Indeed  the  farmer  gets  his  (food 
products  from  the  elements,  while  digestion 
gets  them  from  the  farmer  chiefly. 

Finally  is  the  E Decretory  System  which  has 
to  clean  up  and  carry  off  what  is  called  the 
waste  of  the  body,  to  eject  the  rejected  mate- 


308        THE  BIOC08M08— PARTICULARIZED. 

rial.  This  waste  is  mainly  composed  of  worn- 
out  tissues,  ashes  from  the  incessant  combus- 
tion going  on,  gases  from  the  chemical  labora- 
tory in  every  part,  refractory  portions  of 
the  original  food,  various  secretions  for  help- 
ing the  work  of  cleansing,  and  then  a  flush 
.of  water  oozing  at  every  pore.  Here  we  see 
the  primal  sanitary  police  established  by  Na- 
ture, but  to  be  sharply  looked  after  by  every 
man  who  cares  for  health  and  working-power. 
The  body  has  a  marvelous  instinct  of  getting 
rid  of  its  own  filth,  but  needs  also  intelligent 
help  from  the  brain.  Every  organ  probably 
has  some  ability  to  excrete  its  own  offal,  but 
the  organism  has  its  special  officials  for  this 
business,  chiefly  the  lungs,  kidneys,  intestines, 
skin,  all  of  which  have  other  duties  also.  It 
will  be  noticed  that  the  social  Order,  espe- 
cially the  City,  with  its  Board  of  Health  and 
system  of  sanitation,  with  its  sewers,  gar- 
bage carts,  sprinkling,  etc.,  has  simply  objecti- 
fied into  an  institution  the  working  of  the  hu- 
man Organism.  Associated  man  takes  his 
instinctive  cue  from  the  association  of  or- 
gans in  his  own  frame-work. 

With  the  Excretory  System  the  Organism 
directed  inwards,  which  started  with  inter- 
nalizing the  external  world  or  a  part  of  it, 
has  now  turned  outwards,  and  thrown  back 
into  that  same  external  world  what  it  has  not 


ANIMAL  LIFE— ASSIMILATION.  399 

wanted.  Thus  the  complete  cycle  of  Diges- 
tion, Circulation  and  Excretion  has  rounded 
itself  out,  having  in  general  come  back  to  its 
starting-place.  The  fluids,  gases  and  solids 
excreted  by  the  body  will  be  again  subjected 
to  Earth's  process,  and  transformed  to  the 
elements  which  may  once  more  be  wrought 
over  into  Plant  and  Animal.  In  fact  the 
whole  body  is  destined  to  be  restored  to  the 
elements  from  which  it  was  taken. 

Such  is  the  first  stage  or  act  of  the  Assim- 
ilative Process  of  Animal-life,  in  which  the 
Organism  is  directed  inward,  till  it  finally  di- 
vides its  appropriated  material,  and  throws 
outward  what  it  cannot  use.  Thus  the  in- 
ward-turning Process  has  begun  to  turn  out- 
ward, and  will  demand  and  create  its  own  set 
of  organs  for  completing  the  work  of  this  new 
direction.  Moreover  a  new  character  will  be 
developed  by  this  second  stage  of  Assimila- 
tion, less  internal  and  self-dependent,  more 
subordinate  to  an  outer  central  control,  and 
hence  more  deeply  associated  with  the  total 
Organism,  with  which  it  is  more  directly  and 
completely  connected.  Less  able  to  live  an 
unseen  inner  self-contained  Plant-life,  it  will 
turn  more  to  action,  being  the  direct  instru- 
ment of  a  centralized  will. 

2.  The  Organism  Outivardly  Directed.  Al- 
ready we  have  noted  the  Extremities  (arms 


310        THE  BIOCOSMOS— PARTICULARIZED. 

and  legs)  as  a  division  of  the  external  Form 
of  the  human  body,  whose  members  sprout 
out  of  the  four  corners  of  the  Trunk.  The 
latter  is  the  chief  seat  of  the  preceding  Pro- 
cess of  inner  Assimilation,  which  takes  place 
inside ;  but  now  that  same  Trunk  sends  forth 
limbs  which  are  largely  employed  in  the  work 
of  outer  Assimilation.  Such  is  the  present 
counterpart  to  what  has  gone  before.  Indeed 
that  inner  Assimilation  is  quite  helpless 
against  the  external  world  which  must  be 
seized  and  appropriated,  and  which  must  be 
guarded  against  in  its  assaults  upon  the  Or- 
ganism. Thus  we  come  to  the  continual 
pitched  battle  between  Life  and  Unlife,  as 
well  as  between  Life  and  Life  in  the  grand 
struggle  of  individuals  for  a  share  of  Life. 

In  this  realm  of  external  conflict,  the  first 
organ  is  one  of  protection,  the  enveloping 
wall  of  the  fortress — the  skin  which  is  direct- 
ed outward  in  a  passive  defense,  yet  also  di- 
rected inward  as  already  noted.  Next  we 
place  the  skeleton  with  its  bones,  the  upholder 
of  the  Organism  within  and  without,  for  of- 
fense and  defense.  Finally  the  muscles  form 
the  system  of  ropes  which  direct  the  bones 
and  the  whole  organism  in  its  varied  move- 
ments within  and  specially  without  in  loco- 
motion. These  three  organs  or  rather  sys- 
tems of  organs,  while  they  have  also  their 


ANIMAL  LIFE—ASSIMILATION. 


internal  relations,  tend  to  externalize  the  in- 
ternal, to  meet  the  incoming  world,  in  defense, 
attack  and  appropriation.  These  points  we 
may  draw  out  a  little. 

The  outermost  part  of  this  external  stage 
of  the  organism  is  the  Skin,  or  the  corporeal 
integument,  close-fitting  and  protecting  the 
naked  tissues  underneath.  It  is  in  many  re- 
spects the  contrast  to  the  Bones  in  the  pres- 
ent division  of  Assimilation  ;  it  does  not  hold 
up  but  holds  in  ;  still  it  has  likewise  a  non-vital 
element,  especially  in  the  nails  and  hair,  and 
it  sloughs  off  the  outermost  cover  of  itself. 
Thus  the  Skin  divides  into  an  inner  layer 
(dermis)  vitally  organized,  and  an  outer  layer 
less  vitally  organized  and  wearing  away  into 
the  inorganic  part  (epidermis). 

The  Skin  besides  its  protective  character, 
is  both  absorbent  and  excretory,  and  it  is 
capable  of  a  little  round  of  nutrition  in  itself 
with  mouth  and  stomach.  But  outwardly  it 
is  the  dividing  surface  between  the  organism 
and  the  elements;  it  outlines  the  individual 
body  in  the  world,  holding  and  defending  all 
the  other  organs.  Among  mankind  it  is 
colored  variously,  and  this  color  of  the  skin 
is  the  chief  outer  mark  of  the  distinction  of 
races. 

Next  in  this  sphere  we  place  the  system  of 
the  Bones  —  the  framework  of  the  Organism 


312        THE  BWCQSMOS— PARTICULARIZED. 

which  is  the  solid  basis  for  all  movement  of 
the  soft  parts  outward,  and  by  which  they  are 
borne  along.  Also  it  contains  and  protects 
the  inner  organs  with  a  surrounding  rampart. 
The  human  shape  it  holds  upright,  and  there- 
in suggests  the  evolution  from  the  lower  ani- 
mals. Moreover  the  Bones  are  the  earthy 
portion  of  the  body,  though  somewhat  organ- 
ized. 

The  skeleton  gives  the  division  already 
noted  in  the  outer  shape — Trunk,  Extremities, 
Head — two  hundred  and  six  bones  being  usu- 
ally counted  in  the  body.  Thus  it  is  chiefly 
what  determines  the  external  Form.  But  it 
has  evolved,  so  there  is  something  determin- 
ing it — evolving  it  toward  an  end.  The  skele- 
ton thus  becomes  an  important  criterion  of 
evolution,  especially  the  vertebral  system  with 
its  skull. 

It  is  the  skeleton  which  must  evolve  into 
the  upright  posture  and  carry  the  body  as  a 
whole  with  it,  which  otherwise  would  fall  to 
the  earth  in  a  mass  The  skeleton  is  what 
rises  up  in  opposition  to  gravity,  the  earthy 
matter  is  organized  against  the  earth  in  a  de- 
gree, and  to  this  new  earth  the  rest  of  the 
body  clings.  So  far  then  the  organism  de- 
gravitates,  obeying  its  own  center,  yet  as  a 
whole  it  still  gravitates.  Significant  is  it  to 
see  the  skeleton  evolve  in  the  lower  orders 


ANIMAL  LIFE— ASSIMILATION.  3^3 

into  existence,  then  rise  from  its  horizon- 
talism  (or  subservience  to  gravitation),  to 
perpendicularism.  But  is  this  last  the  final 
form? 

The  Trunk  is  on  the  whole  the  least  pro- 
tected part,  the  head  is  the  best  protected, 
the  Extremities  are  the  active  protectors  as 
well  as  the  assailants.  Still  the  skeleton  can- 
not work  of  itself,  the  bony  fortress  must  be 
manned  with  a  working  garrison. 

The  immediate  movers  of  the  Bones  are  the 
Muscles  in  which  are  stored  the  energy  for 
such  purpose.  To  every  bone  are  attached 
two  or  more  muscles  for  directing  it  back  and 
forth  and  perchance  otherwise.  Five  hun- 
dred and  twenty-six  skeletal  muscles  are 
found  in  the  human  body.  Now  this  muscular 
energy  does  not  start  and  go  of  itself  ordi- 
narily; it  is  stored  and  has  to  be  kindled,  like 
a  piece  of  coal ;  or  it  must  be  oxidized,  when  it 
too  gives  off  heat.  Blood  is  the  agent. 

But  the  control  of  this  process  lies  in  the 
nerves  which  penetrate  these  numerous  mus- 
cles everywhere,  some  of  which,  especially 
those  of  the  Extremities,  are  under  the  con- 
trol of  the  will,  while  others  are  involuntary. 
Thus  the  Muscles  are  an  intermediate  prin- 
ciple, the  directive  implement  of  the  whole 
organism,  which  we  may  liken  to  a  system 
of  pulley  ropes ;  these  must  have  something  to 


314         THE  BIOCOSMOS— PARTICULARIZED. 

pull,  and  also  something  to  pull  them  in  turn 
— a  still  higher  directive  agency. 

The  Muscles  connect  the  Skin  with  the 
Bones  locally,  and  are  protected  by  it  from 
the  oxygen  of  the  air  which  is  to  reach  them 
through  the  lungs  and  blood.  The  Skin  thus 
prevents  the  Muscles  from  taking  fire  on  the 
outside  and  then  burning  up  without  the  or- 
der of  the  central  authority,  which  is  brain 
and  nerve.  So  the  skin  is  the  excluding 
agency,  limiting  not  only  to  form  but  to  func- 
tion, turning  the  organic  process  inward, 
shutting  off  the  process  outward. 

Through  the  Muscles  the  Organism  has 
now  gotten  a  directive  energy,  which  is  dis- 
tributed to  the  organs  of  the  body,  but  which 
especially  lays  hold  of  the  Bones  and  works 
them  in  accord  with  a  purpose.  The  Muscles 
are  the  laborers  who  indeed  perform  the  task, 
but  who  have  to  receive  their  commands  from 
a  higher  authority,  with  its  system  of  messen- 
gers going  and  returning.  Therein  the  Mus- 
cles pre-suppose  a  new  directive  center,  which 
must  likewise  have  its  seat  in  an  organ. 

At  this  point,  then,  the  Organism  directed 
outwardly  in  Assimilation  comes  to  its  limit, 
and  organically  through  the  nerves  of  the 
Muscles  passes  over  into  a  new  field.  It  is 
seen  to  be  under  direct  control  of  a  superior 
power  which  must  next  be  sought.  Meanwhile 


ANIMAL  LIFE—ASSIMILATION. 


we  can  look  back  and  observe  that  Skin,  Bones 
and  Muscles  form  a  whole  with  its  process  in 
conflict  with  the  external  world.  They  are 
the  defenders,  upholders  and  providers  of  the 
citadel  of  the  individual  which  must  be  pro- 
tected and  nourished  from  the  outside  realm 
of  Nature.  Still  such  action  is  not  automatic 
and  involuntary  like  a  great  part  of  the  Or- 
ganism inwardly  directed.  Next  we  must  as- 
cend to  the  fountain  of  this  new  directive 
energy. 

3.  The  Organism  Self  -directed.  We  have 
now  reached  the  control  and  centralizing  ac- 
tivity of  the  total  Organism  —  the  Nervous 
System,  with  Brain  and  Spinal  Cord.  Hith- 
erto there  has  appeared  a  multiplicity  of  or- 
gans which  we  have  sought  to  co-ordinate  in 
our  thought;  but  now  they  are  to  be  co-ordi- 
nated by  one  of  themselves;  that  is,  all  the 
different  organs  are  to  be  unified,  and  this  un- 
ification is  to  be  the  work  of  an  organ.  From 
the  center  the  lines  or  nerves  run  out  into 
every  minute  part,  to  the  corporeal  periphery, 
and  then  they  return  to  the  center  ;  thus  a  vast 
number  of  circuits  going  and  coming  are  in- 
terwoven through  the  body.  The  Nervous 
System  is  a  System  of  Cycles  separating  from 
and  returning  to  a  common  point  which  con- 
trols them  all,  and  through  them  the  other 
parts  of  the  Organism. 


316        THE  BIOCOSM08— PARTICULARIZED. 

This  is,  therefore,  the  universal  organ  pen- 
etrating everywhere  within  its  sphere,  and 
yet  a  particular  organ  too,  whose  function 
is  to  unite  all  the  particular  organs,  to  sub- 
ordinate their  particular  separative  charac- 
ter, and  therewith  its  own.  We  may  call  it 
the  organ  of  all  organs;  specializing  visibly, 
it  must  also  visibly  universalize  all  special- 
ized organs,  including  itself.  This  double 
part  it  has  to  enact,  yea  to  organize  sensibly. 

The  Nervous  System  with  the  Brain  directs 
the  outwardly  directed  and  the  inwardly  di- 
rected organs  of  the  body,  and  directs  itself 
therein.  So  we  see  the  perpetual  round  of 
nervous  action  whose  image  is  realized  in  the 
above-mentioned  cycles.  As  every  point  of 
the  Organism  in  its  separation  must  be  hunted 
up  by  a  nerve  and  joined  to  the  center,  there 
arises  the  surprisingly  large  number  of 
nerves  in  the  human  body — 499,500,  some 
have  estimated.  But  the  very  object  of  this 
enormous  differentiation  is  to  overcome  dif- 
ferentiation, to  bring  back  all  these  differ- 
ences to  unity.  Still  this  has  to  be  done  out- 
wardly, materially,  by  an  organ ;  thus  the 
Nervous  System  with  the  brain  is  the  high- 
est visible  manifestation  of  the  Universal  in- 
corporate ;  or  it  is  the  Psychosis  materialized, 
as  far  as  this  can  be  brought  about.  Note- 
worthy is  the  fact  that  the  seat  of  the  psychi- 


ANIMAL  LIFE— ASSIMILATION.  33/7 

cal  Process  indicates  or  pre-figures  in  outer 
form  so  closely  just  that  Process. 

So  we  have  the  Directive  or  Administrative 
System  of  the  Organism,  which  directs  the 
directed  inwardly  and  outwardly,  and  is  both 
along  with  itself.  These  three  Systems  con- 
stitute the  complete  process  of  Assimilation, 
which  keeps  pouring  the  outer  world  into  its 
mill  and  working  it  over  till  it  be  transmuted 
into  the  mill  itself,  which  becomes  thus  self- 
working  and  self-active,  getting  the  food 
which  enables  it  to  get  such  food,  assimilat- 
ing the  unassimilated  till  this  assimilates 
also.  The  stages  of  self-direction  with  the 
corresponding  organ  may  be  summarized  as 
follows : 

(a)  Self-direction  organizing  itself  in  its 
special  organ  The  'Brain,  which  consist  of  the 
Cerebrum,  Cerebellum,  Medulla. 

(b)  Self-direction,  reaching  out  to  the  rest 
of  the  body  and  controlling  it — Spinal  Cord 
with  two  lines  embracing  the  inner  and  outer 
(peripheral)  organs. 

(c)  Self -direction    reaching   forth   to    the 
world  outside  the  organism  and  ideally  get- 
ting control  of  that  (or  assimilating  it),  as  in 
the  sense  of  vision.    This  is  a  return  to  the 
previous  external  world,  but  not  to  use  it  as 
aliment  for  the  body. 

(a)  The  Brain  is  the  organized  center  of 


318      THE  BIOCOSMOS— PARTICULARIZED. 

its  own  Directive  System,  and  of  all  the  other 
Systems  of  bodily  organs.  But  the  Brain 
too  is  still  further  organized  of  System  with- 
in System,  refining  itself  more  and  more  to- 
ward the  Psyche,  which  is  the  final  creative 
point  of  Assimilation.  Still  its  bi-lateral  sym- 
metry is  ever  present,  the  inerasable  stamp  of 
Nature — the  outwardly  separated  parts  be- 
coming one. 

This  separation  is  likewise  indicated  in  the 
two  kinds  of  matter  of  which  the  Brain  is 
composed — the  gray  and  white,  or  the  outer 
and  inner,  which,  however,  coalesce  in  a  kind 
of  medium.  The  gray  matter  is  made  up  of 
nerve  cells  mostly,  while  the  white  matter 
which  underlies  the  gray  is  constituted  chiefly 
of  nerve  fibres,  which  grow  out  of  the  nerve 
cells. 

First  in  order,  the  Cerebrum,  co-ordinates 
all  the  manifold  lesser  co-ordinations  with 
supreme  authority,  with  Will.  It  directs  the 
rest  of  the  directive  organs — it  is  the  direction 
of  direction,  and  hence  ultimately  it  is  the  self- 
directed,  and  imparts  that  characteristic  to 
the  whole  organism.  In  the  Cerebrum  is  the 
supreme  turning-point  from  the  sensory  to 
the  motor  power,  from  inwards  to  outwards, 
from  afferent  to  efferent  nerves.  These  are 
composed  of  two  distinct  kinds  of  cells,  to 
which  is  added  the  third  kind  called  associa- 


ANIMAL  LIFE— ASSIMILATION. 


319 


tional — connecting  cells  of  the  Cerebrum, 
which  alone  has  been  estimated  to  contain 
more  than  nine  thousand  million  cells — the 
very  image  of  infinite  particularity  unified 
through  association,  or  made  universal  though 
still  in  a  particular  way  or  organ.  The  Cere- 
brum may  be  deemed  the  creative  prototype 
of  all  human  association,  being  itself  so  com- 
pletely associated  in  its  minute  cellular  divi- 
sion. 

The  Cerebellum  is  supposed  to  be  the  seat 
of  the  co-ordination  of  the  actions  of  the  mus- 
cles and  of  other  organs.  Many  muscles  have 
to  co-operate  in  walking  for  instance;  then 
again  the  muscular  System  requires  respira- 
tion for  instance,  which  has  its  primal  auto- 
matic control  in  the  Medulla.  The  Cerebellum 
is  composed  of  white  and  gray  matter,  like 
the  Cerebrum,  but  somewhat  differently  ar- 
ranged, having  not  so  much  an  originative  as 
a  regulative  power.  An  animal  deprived  of 
its  Cerebellum  cannot  make  its  muscles  co- 
operate to  one  end,  although  these  may  show 
irregular  movements.  The  many  muscles  re- 
quired to  give  a  sudden  leap  must  be  subordi- 
nated for  the  single  act:  this  subordination  is 
the  work  of  the  Cerebellum,  which  is  in  its 
turn  subordinated  and  has  to  obey  the  com- 
manded purpose.  Thus  it  is  double,  govern- 
ing in  one  direction,  yet  being  governed  in  an- 
other. 


320        THE  BIOCOSMOS— PARTICULARIZED. 

The  Medulla  has  chiefly  control  over  the 
functions  of  the  inward-turning  organs  of  the 
Trunk  (lungs,  heart,  stomach,  etc.).  It  works 
automatically  from  within,  not  reflexly  from 
without  (reflex  action  properly  starts  inward 
from  the  skin).  Also  it  works  continuously, 
not  subject  directly  to  the  Will.  Still  it  does 
not  act  independently  for  it  too  is  associated 
with  the  rest  of  the  Organism.  In  general  the 
Medulla  is  in  control  the  vegetal  part  of  the 
total  System,  whose  action  lies  inside  the  tho- 
rax and  abdomen,  and  cannot  be  interfered 
with  by  volition.  Thus  it  is  generally  recog- 
nized as  the  co-ordinating  center  of  all  invol- 
untary activity,  or  of  the  Organism  inwardly 
directed  in  Digestion,  Circulation,  Excretion. 
It  contrasts  with  the  Cerebellum  which  co-or- 
dinates mainly  the  outward-turning  organs 
which  have  the  battle  to  fight  with  the  external 
world  for  food  and  defense  and  so  must  be 
under  direct  control. 

Putting  these  three  parts  of  the  Brain  into 
an  order,  we  see  a  return  upon  the  whole  or- 
ganism, of  which  Ihe  Medulla  is  the  co-ordi- 
nation of  the  inward-directed  part,  the  Cere- 
bellum of  the  outward-directed  part,  while  the 
Cerebrum  is  the  co-ordination  of  these  co-or- 
dinations, and  likewise  of  its  own  or  of  itself. 
Here  then  we  may  see  the  primal  seat  of  or- 
ganic self-direction,  which  has  three  phases  or 


ANIMAL  LIFE— ASSIMILATION.  32} 

cycles ;  the  self-direction  of  the  Cerebrum,  of 
the  total  Brain,  and  of  the  total  Organism. 
Still  the  latter  is  not  governed  directly  always 
from  th.e  three  brain  centers,  but  has  its  own 
center,  a  sort  of  second  or  subordinate  Brain 
situated  almost  wholly  in  the  Trunk  itself. 

(b)  This  secondary  System  of  centralizing 
and  directing  the  Organism  or  parts  of  it,  has 
many  ramifications,  but  may  be  looked  at 
in  three  main  divisions — the  Spinal  Cord,  the 
so-called  Sympathetic  Nerve,  and  the  Nerves 
proper,  or  the  Neural  differentiation,  which 
embraces  the  peripheral  System  on  the"sur- 
face  of  the  body.  The  general  character  of 
this  secondary  System  is  meditational,  lying 
as  it  does  between  the  immediate  organs  of 
Assimilation  and  the  supreme  organs  of  con- 
trol. In  fact  the  whole  sphere  is  one  of  intri- 
cate division  and  specialization;  the  Nerves 
are  indefinitely  specialized  for  each  little  part 
or  purpose.  Every  region  of  the  body's  sur- 
face has  a  different  degree  and  kind  of  sensa- 
tion for  instance,  and  this  is  a  neural  differen- 
tiation. 

The  Spinal  Cord  has  the  double  duty  of  re- 
flex action  and  at  the  same  time  of  transmis- 
sion of  the  stimulus  to  the  Brain.  It  is  itself 
a  reflex  center  of  afferent  and  efferent  nerves, 
yet  is  also  connected  with  and  subordinate  to 
the  cerebral  center,  to  which  likewise  there 


'322        ™E  BIOCOSM08— PARTICULARIZED. 

must  be  a  going  and  a  returning.  The  Spinal 
Cord  is  cleft  lengthwise  by  a  fissure  which 
quite  halves  it,  the  two  parts  being  united  by 
a  little  neck  of  gray  matter,  while  the  white 
matter  lies  on  the  outside  of  the  cord.  The 
motor  fibre  from  the  nerve  is  what  makes  the 
muscles  contract. 

The  two  lines  of  the  Ganglionic  or  Sympa- 
thetic System  have  to  do  with  the  viscera,  the 
inward-turning  organs.  They  branch  from 
the  spinal  nerves  near  the  spinal  column  and 
form  a  row  of  ganglia  on  each  side  of  the 
body,  and  the  two  rows  unite  in  one  ganglion 
at  the  pelvis.  They  resemble  two  knotted 
ropes  suspended  on  each  side  of  the  spine  and 
tied  together  below — an  inner  and  outer  spinal 
cord  controlling  inner  and  outer  organs  of 
Assimilation.  Hence  there  is  a  sort  of  dupli- 
cated Spinal  Cord,  the  outer  being  protected 
by  its  bony  walls.  These  nerves  are  respect- 
ively called  the  cerebro-spinal  and  sympathe- 
tic Systems.  The  main  ganglionic  line  divides 
into  subordinate  groups  of  ganglia  forming 
an  intricate  network  known  as  plexuses  (for 
instance,  the  solar).  Crawfish  and  insects 
have  chiefly  the  ganglionic  System  and  thus 
indicate  a  starting-point  of  nerve  evolution. 

The  work  of  the  Nerves  proper  in  the  Or- 
ganism has  been  often  compared  to  that  of 
the  Telegraphic  System  with  its  thousands 


ANIMAL  LIFE— ASSIMILATION.  £23 

of  wires  penetrating  every  portion  of  the 
country,  and  combining  it  into  centers  small 
and  large,  whereby  the  minute  intercommuni- 
cation of  part  with  part  and  of  these  parts 
with  the  whole  is  brought  about.  The  nerves 
are  accordingly  the  means  of  the  complete  as- 
sociation of  all  the  separated  members  of  the 
body,  even  to  the-  cell,  interconnecting  every 
point  in  the  Organism  with  the  series  of  lower 
centers,  till  they  reach  the  seat  of  supreme 
authority.  The  cranial  nerves  go  to  the  Brain 
directly,  as  they  lie  nearest,  but  the  vast  mul- 
titude of  the  other  nerves  show  a  gradation 
of  control,  a  kind  of  hierarchy,  which  orders, 
correlates  and  unifies  the  corporeal  activities, 
internal  and  external. 

The  great  fact,  then,  of  the  large  popula- 
tion of  Nerves  is  Association,  which  is  here 
realized  in  its  highest  organic  potence.  Tak- 
ing the  cell  as  the  least  and  final  indviduation 
of  Nature,  billions  of  units  in  one  Organism, 
the  Nervous  System  as  a  whole  is  what  co-or- 
dinates and  associates  them.  The  preceding 
secondary  Brain,  as  we  may  call  it,  embracing 
the  three  Systems — the  Spinal  Cord,  the  Sym- 
pathetic Nerve,  and  the  Neural  Differentia- 
tion ramifying  in  all  directions  and  individ- 
uating as  if  in  correspondence  with  Nature 
herself — has  now  completed  its  mediation, 
outer  and  inner,  has  connected  the  outside 


324        THE  B10COSMOS— PARTICULARIZED. 

or  superficial  as  well  as  the  inside  or  visceral 
parts  of  the  Organism  with  the  Brain  which, 
as  self-directed,  is  the  seat  of  all  other  direc- 
tion. At  this  point  then  comes  specially  the 
relation  of  the  Organism  to  the  outside  world. 

(c)  This  relation  (say  of  man's  body  to  its 
environment)  varies  much,  and  hence  differ- 
entiates itself  variously  in  the  Organism, 
whose  differences  in  this  regard  have  long 
been  known  as  the  Five  Senses,  which  have 
seemingly  evolved  from  the  simple  primal 
cell-sense,  one  as  yet  and  not  very  pro- 
nounced, though  certainly  manifested.  So  the 
nerve-ends  of  the  bodily  periphery  become 
specialized  in  the  course  of  long  evolution  for 
adjusting  the  Organism  to  external  condi- 
tions. Again  rises  the  question  as  to  what 
ultimately  works  this  transformation.  In 
general  it  would  seem  that  the  Nerves  are 
most  susceptible  to  this  evolutionary  power, 
being  the  chief  means  of  vitalizing  into  the 
highest  forms  of  Life  the  lower  and  even  the 
non- vital  forms.  It,is  Psyche  again  overcom- 
ing the  vast  separation  of  Physis  and  restor- 
ing the  ultimate  One. 

This  field  we  may  call  Sensuous  Assimila- 
tion, in  which  the  outer  world  is  taken  up  into 
the  central  Brain  through  the  Five  Senses 
(sometimes  more  are  given).  This  furnishes 
knowledge  or  ideal  Assimilation,  not  ali- 


ANIMAL  LIFE— ASSIMILATION.  325 

mentation  or  bodily  Assimilation,  which,  how- 
ever, the  same  center  controls.  The  object 
now  begins  to  be  assimilated  to  the  Psyche 
directly,  not  to  the  Organism — one  begins  to 
know.  Touch  is  the  Sense  of  immediate  con- 
tact with  the  external  object,  and  varies  much 
in  different  parts  of  the  body.  Next  we  have 
Taste  and  Smell,  which  sense  the  object  dis- 
solved in  liquid  or  air,  but  still  in  contact  with 
special  organs  of  the  body.  Finally  Hearing 
and  Sight  are  Senses  of  the  object  at  a  dis- 
tance, but  taken  up  through  waves  of  air  or 
light.  Theoretic,  constructive,  ideal  Senses 
they  have  been  named  from  this  attribute. 

Thus  the  realm  of  the  Five  Senses  with 
their  sensations  concludes  the  process  of  the 
Organism  as  self-directed,  starting  from  the 
Brain  and  reaching  through  the  Nerves  to 
the  outer  world  and  then  through  the  Nerves 
returning  to  the  Brain.  Such  is  the  cycle  of 
organic  self-direction  which,  however,  is  but 
a  stage  of  the  larger  cycle  of  Assimilation, 
which  cycle,  beginning  with  its  immediate  act 
of  biting  and  digesting  food,  winds  up  with 
assimilating  the  object  ideally  and  at  a  dis- 
tance as  in  sense  of  sight.  Thus  we  conceive 
the  assimilative  Process  to  extend  from  swal- 
lowing the  object  to  knowing  it — from  a  real 
to  an  ideal  Assimilation — the  latter  returning 
to  the  world  not  for  physical  but  mental  food, 
perchance  to  find  the  Psyche  therein. 


326        THE  BIOV08M08— PARTICULARIZED. 

At  this  point  is  concluded  the  second  stage 
of  Animal-life,  the  assimilative,  which  has 
unfolded  itself  in  three  main  processes:  the 
Organism  inwardly  directed  then  outwardly 
directed,  and  finally  self-directed.  All  these 
processes  have  the  same  general  object:  to 
transform  the  outer  world  into  the  inner  Or- 
ganism which  does  the  work  of  transforma- 
tion. But  now  the  opposite  has  to  show  it- 
self: this  inner  Organism  makes  itself  outer 
or  another;  from  transforming  an  object  into 
itself,  it  proceeds  to  transform  itself  into  an 
object.  It  not  merely  assimilates  but  gener- 
ates. In  Assimilation  the  Organism  has  re- 
produced itself  within  itself;  in  Generation 
it  has  reproduced  itself  in  another.  In  the 
one  case  there  is  appropriation,  in  the  other 
there  is  impartation.  We  may  call  the  first 
case  self-regarding  (individualistic),  the  sec- 
ond is  other-regarding  (altruistic). 

We  may  conceive  Generation  to  be  Assimil- 
ation turned  about  and  rounding  itself  out  to 
a  whole;  the  Organism  assimilates  itself  to 
a  new  entire  Organism  assimilating.  This  is 
the  inherent  logic  of  the  transition:  when  the 
principle  of  Assimilation  is  applied  to  itself, 
or  made  universal,  it  can  no  longer  one-sidedly 
subsume  the  object  under  itself,  but  must  also 
subsume  itself  under  the  object;  the  Organ- 
ism, from  making  the  object  like  to  itself, 


ANIMAL  LIFE— GENERATION.  327 

must  pass  to  making  itself  like  to  this  object, 
or  generating  another  like  to  itself.  The  thing 
assimilated  is  transmuted  into  the  thing  as- 
similating. 

Thus  we  may  again  see  that  reproduction  is 
of  two  kinds :  assimilative  and  generative,  and 
can  be  regarded  as  forming  a  bridge  of  tran- 
sition from  one  to  /the  other.  In  the  first  case 
it  overmakes  the  world  into  itself,  in  the  sec- 
ond it  overmakes  itself  into  the  world.  Thus 
in  the  last  instance  the  Organism  gets  to  be 
a  kind  of  world-maker  within  its  sphere;  it 
recreates  itself  creating,  and  so  manifests 
what  is  now  known  in  biology  as  genetic  con- 
tinuity. This  fact  in  its  organic  manifesta- 
tion is  what  must  be  next  set  forth. 

III.  THE  GENEKATIVE  PKOCESS  OF  ANIMAL- 
LIFE.  The  present  stage,  as  the  third  in  the 
movement  of  Animal-life,  reveals  itself  as 
a  return  to  the  Formative  Process  already 
set  forth.  The  Form  of  the  Animal  was  there 
(in  the  first  stage)  taken  up  as  something 
given  or  pre-supposed ;  but  now  that  given  or 
immediate  Form  is  to  be  seen  bringing  forth 
itself  in  a  kind  of  self-mediation,  reproducing 
itself  through  organs.  So  Generation  goes 
back  to  Formation,  ever  re-forming  the  body 
of  the  Animal  according  to  its  pre-established 
norm,  of  course  with  some  variations.  The 
Generative  Process,  accordingly  is  a  phase  of 


328        THE  BIOCOWMOS— PARTICULARIZED. 

that  creative  individuation,  which  belongs  to 
all  Nature,  is  indeed  the  very  soul  of  Nature 
sprung  of  her  primal  separation  from  and  in 
the  All.  For  we  may  deem  Nature  the  Multi- 
verse  born  of,  yet  remaining  in,  the  Universe. 
Each  living  unit  has  this  universal  power  (or 
power  of  the  Universe)  of  separating  itself 
into  many  individuals.  So  far  back  we  trace 
Generation,  to  its  primal  source,  which  must 
be  the  Generation  of  all  Generation,  in  which 
the  Animal  as  genetic  individual  participates, 
thus  showing  itself  to  be  an  organic  member 
of  the  supreme  original  Totality — the  Part 
sharing  in  the  Process  of  the  Whole. 

The  Animal  likewise  has  its  norm  or  ideal 
prototype  transmitted  from  individual  to  in- 
dividual, which  fact  is  realized  in  the  vast 
repetition  of  shapes,  each  of  them  being  a  sort 
of  copy  of  the  originative  norm.  Every  Or- 
ganism as  genetic  has  an  immortal  part  which 
is  just  this  animal  norm  and  which  it  hands 
down  to  its  offspring.  Still  every  individual 
has  a  mortal  part;  it  is  pre-formed,  limited, 
fated,  transitory ;  it  goes  through  its  fixed  pe- 
riod of  birth,  maturity,  decline,  decease.  Yet 
it  has  the  power  of  re-making  and  projecting 
this  individuality  through  time  indefinitely, 
and  thus  has  an  eternal  element. 

So  the  Organism  through  Generation  keeps 
reproducing  the  pre-established  Form  of  the 


ANIMAL  LIFE  —  GENERATION. 


given  species,  or  more  remotely  the  original 
Animal-norm  itself.  That  Form  seems  super- 
imposed upon  every  living  individual,  whence 
comes  it,  and  what  does  the  act?  It  is  one 
phase  of  the  total  manifestation  of  Nature  as 
individuated  or  separative.  Yet  this  individ- 
ual as  Organism  insists  upon  not  remaining 
merely  individual  but  also  upon  sharing  in 
what  created  it,  that  is,  in  its  own  creation. 
So  it  becomes  generative,  turning  back  to  its 
genetic  source;  what  makes  it,  it  must  make 
likewise.  Thus  it  breaks  over  its  individual 
limits,  reaching  backward  and  forward  in  pro- 
creation ;  it  makes  itself  universal  organically 
(not  spiritually).  Even  our  body  longs  to 
burst  its  barrier  of  Form  (in  its  genetic  de- 
sire) and  to  re-make  its  own  Form. 

Assimilation,  having  satisfied  one  sort  of 
appetite,  begets  another,  its  counterpart  and 
complement.  The  Organism  in  its  assimila- 
tive stage  has  reproduced  itself  as  something 
already  given  and  existent;  but  now  it  seeks 
to  reproduce  its  own  reproduction.  In  As- 
similation the  Organism  takes  for  granted 
in  impulse  its  own  origin,  but  now  it  pushes 
to  originate  just  that  origin;  it  can  not  stay 
a  part  of  itself,  but  must  be  the  whole  of  its 
process,  must  instinctively  seek  to  be  univer- 
sal. Though  already  born,  even  the  animal 
body  is  not  content  therein,  but  proceeds  to 


330        THE  BIOCOSMOS— PARTICULARIZED. 

re-bear  its  own  birth.  Such  is  the  supreme 
desire  of  the  body :  it  feels  itself  a  part  and 
is. unhappy  till  it  integrates  itself;  or  it  feels 
itself  in  prison,  till  it  breaks  out  and  recon- 
structs its  prison;  it  is  a  slave  in  Assimila- 
tion, but  is  free  in  Generation  (or  relatively 
so). 

As  the  relation  between  the  assimilative 
and  reproductive  processes  of  the  animal  Or- 
ganism is  the  most  significant  of  this  whole 
sphere,  we  may  employ  still  another  set  of 
categories  to  designate  it:  potential  and 
actual.  The  Organism  in  Assimilation  re- 
newing its  own  ready-made  tissues,  is  po- 
tentially creative  or  reproductive;  it  re- 
news itself  as  old,  as  given,  as  unseparated 
within  itself.  But  when  it  renews  itself  as 
a  new  individual  it  is  really  new,  creation  is 
actual,  reproduction  is  realized  in  the  separ- 
ated Organism  which  is  no  longer  merely  po- 
tential in  the  first  Organism..  The  Generative 
Process  is  thus  the  true  realization  of  what 
Life  assimilates,  completing  .such  Assimila- 
tion into  a  whole.  '  Even  the  body  will  totify 
its  own  hunger,  and  altruize  its  selfish  crav- 
ing. 

These  expressions  suggest  a  higher  sphere, 
the  social  order  of  man.  The  socio-economic 
institution  springs  from  the  need  of  nutrition 
and  assimilation  in  the  human  organism;  yet 


ANIMAL  LIFE— GENERATION.  33^ 

it  is  when  taken  in  itself,  an  institutional  or- 
ganism, the  association  of  many  individuals 
for  the  purpose  of  satisfying  their  basic  or- 
ganic wants.  Civilized  man  does  not  gratify 
his  bodily  needs  immediately,  but  through  the 
association  with  his  fellow-men.  Already  we 
have  noticed  the  association  of  all  the  organs 
into  the  organism,  and  of  the  cells  into  each 
organ,  so  that  Nature  gives  not  only  the  hint, 
but  the  instinctive  propulsion  to  human  asso- 
ciation. In  like  manner  the  fundamental  con- 
cept of  Ethics  is  suggested  by  the  organic  ac- 
tion of  Assimilation  and  Generation,  though 
both  are  to  be  subordinated  in  the  still  higher 
ethical  relation. 

The  culminating  work  of  Life  as  or- 
ganic is  the  generative  Process  of  the  high- 
est animal,  whereby  this  reproduces  the  Form 
of  itself  in  a  new  individual.  It  is  thus  self- 
begetting,  propagates  itself  through  duration, 
and  in  a  way  eternizes  itself.  "We  may  say 
that  the  Animal  now  breaks  out  of  its  own 
fixed  and  otherwise  impassable  limits  of  Space 
and  Time — its  bounded  shape  and  its  periodic 
life — and  posits  itself  in  new  limits  of  Space 
and  Time.  Thus  it  transcends  those  primal 
elemental  restraints  of  Nature  (Space  airl 
Time)  and  to  a  degree  determines  them  for 
its  purpose.  We  may  here  conceive  the  Ani- 
mal as  going  back  to  its  first  given  Form  and 


332        THE  BIOC08MOS— PARTICULARIZED. 

re-forming  that,  and  thus  re-making  its  first 
appearance  (see  the  above  Process  of  Animal 
Form). 

Looking  again  at  the  foregoing  Process  of 
Assimilation  we  note  that,  though  it  repro- 
duces its  own  given  body,  it  cannot  reproduce 
its  starting-point,  it  cannot  recreate  its  total 
self.  TBe  outcome  of  Assimilation  is  to  re- 
produce all  the  separate  organs  of  the  body; 
but  now  the  Animal  must  advance  to  the  re- 
production of  this  reproduction ;  the  individ- 
ual as  a  whole  (not  merely  in  its  organic 
parts)  is  to  be  reproduced  and  to  unfold 
through  its  period.  The  Animal  as  complete 
is  not  only  to  generate  itself  as  begun  but  also 
as  beginning — which  is  the  true  generation. 
To  assimilate  simply  is  to  patch  up  the  old 
individual  with  fresh  fibres,  but  to  generate 
is  to  reproduce  just  this  individual  able  to 
assimilate  and  to  generate.  Or  we  may  say 
the  organism  having  assimilated  must  at  last 
come  to  re-make  itself  assimilating  and  gen- 
erating. 

S.o  there  are  two'  reproductions,  that  of  the 
already  given  organism  and  that  of  the  as 
yet  ungiven  organism;  we  might  call  them 
the  subjective  and  the  objective  reproductions 
— inxthe  latter  the  Animal  reproduces  itself 
completely  as  object.  We  can  also  categorize 
them  as  the  assimilative  and  the  generative 


ANIMAL  LIFE— GENERATION.  333 

reproductions  of  the  Animal.  With  another 
set  of  terms  already  mentioned  we  can  reflect 
upon  them :  individualistic  and  altruistic.  As- 
similation proper  subordinates  the  outside 
world  to  itself — it  is  Nature's  selfishness; 
Generation  subordinates  the  individual  to  the 
other — it  is  Nature's  altruism,  which  still  fur- 
ther develops  in  the  Animal  as  parent.  So 
the  Animal  is  to  remain  not  merely  this  living 
individual,  but  is  to  make  itself  genus,  the 
creative  type  of  its  kind — not  only  individual 
but  universal. 

The  animal  individual,  from  having  been 
the  total  Process  in  itself,  which  it  was  in 
Assimilation,  is  now  to  become  a  part  of  the 
Process  only,  one  side  of  it  or  one-half  of 
it,  which  is  the  case  in  Generation.  The  dia- 
lectic of  Assimilation  demands  that  it  be  sub- 
jected to  its  own  law,  that  it  be  assimilated, 
and  also  by  another  individual.  But  this 
other  individual  too  has  to  obey  the  same  law, 
and  be  assimilated  while  it  assimilates.  From 
this  point  of  view  each  animal  individual  both 
assimilates  and  is  assimilated  by  its  other, 
which  must  be  its  symmetrical  counterpart 
organically,  or  of  the  opposite  sex.  This  mu- 
tuality of  assimilation  is  characteristic  of  the 
generative  Process  in  its  very  germ,  in  the 
two  conjugating  cells. 

The  two  sides  of  bi-lateral  symmetry  for- 


334        THE  BIOCO&MOS— PARTICULARIZED. 

merly  united  in  one  body,  are  now  separated 
into  two  bodies  which  are  still  symmetrical  in 
Generation.    The  dualism  of  the  organs  of  the 
one  organism  which  was  so  prominent  in  As- 
similation has  passed  over  into  two  organ- 
isms, of  two  opposite  but  symmetrical  sexes. 
The  animal  individual  in  order  to  reproduce 
itself  as  individual  must  be  taken  back  to  its 
source,  must  be  dipped  afresh  as  it  were  into 
the  original  fountain  of  its  being,  through  one 
of  the  opposite  sex.     It  has  to  begin  over 
again  from  its  germinal  cell,  and  evolve  as 
a  new  individual,  assimilated  and  also  assimi- 
lating.    Thus  it  shares  in  both  sides,  or  in- 
herits, as  the  saying  runs,  from  both  parents. 
Thus  the  organic  dualism  which  is  so  deeply 
imprinted  on  the  one  body,  breaks  into  two 
bodies,  which,  however,  return  to  the  one  body 
in  the  offspring.     Each  individual  through 
the  other  participates  in  the  total  Process, 
shares  in  the  Generic,  the  Universal,  the  self- 
creative  All.    Over  the  individual  is  the  genus 
which  subordinates  him  in  order  to  re-create 
him  as  individual  who  is,  therefore,  not  in 
himself  generic.    The  absolute  genus  (the  true 
summum  genus]   is  the  Pampsychosis,  far 
above  the  natural  or  organic  genus ;  through 
the  latter  the  individual  can  only  reproduce 
himself  again,  not  being  the  genus  as  such, 
or  as  self-creative.     Tke   self-dividing   and 


ANIMAL  LIFE— GENERATION. 


335 


self-returning  One  which  does  not  fall  asun- 
der into  sex  is  spirit,  the  Ego.  Here  the 
fact  may  be  noted  that  Darwin's  famous  book, 
Origin  of  Species, is  really  seeking  for  this  one 
generative  Process  of  living  individuals, 
Plant  and  Ainmal,  in  their  vast  diversity.  To 
be  sure,  such  is  not  his  conscious  purpose; 
he  will  show  the  cause  or  source  of  variations 
of  Species,  not  the  source  of  Species  itself, 
which  indeed  calls  for  the  primal  individua- 
tion  of  Life.  Species  being  given,  he  investi- 
gates how  and  why  it  will  vary.  But  this  in- 
vestigation cannot  stop  till  it  reaches  to  the 
origin  not  only  of  Species  but  of  Species- 
making,  in  fact  of  Nature  herself.  Still  the 
work  of  Darwin  was  epoch-turning,  since  it 
threw  the  age  upon  the  thought  of  Evolution, 
though  not  original  with  him,  and  led  up,  of 
its  own  inherent  logic,  to  the  still  deeper  prob- 
lem: Does  Evolution  itself  evolve,  or  is  it 
done  with  itself? 

But  this  question,  discussed  elsewhere  yet 
rising  to  the  surface  here  and  everywhere, 
must  now  be  set  aside  for  considering  the 
Generative  Process  of  Animal-life  in  its  spe- 
cial ordering.  As  in  the  case  of  Plant-life, 
we  shall  look  at  it  in  its  three  main  aspects : 
single  Generation  (asexual),  double  Genera- 
tion (sexual),  total  Generation  (or  animal 
Generation  as  a  whole,  in  its  entire  line  of 


336      THE  Bwcosufos— PARTICULARIZED. 

descent  from  its  start  and  at  present  exist- 
ent). Thus  the  original  Animal-norm  may 
be  seen  manifesting  itself  in  its  uncounted 
shapes  of  which  we  are  ourselves  one,  just 
that  one  which  glances  back  in  time  and  over 
in  space,  and  orders  the  whole  by  a  universal 
principle  which  strives  to  be  harmonious  with 
that  of  the  Universe  itself. 

1.  Single  Generation  of  Animal-life.  When 
we  see  the  one  Amoeba  polypodia  divide  with- 
in itself  and  become  two  individuals,  both  be- 
ing alive  and  the  child  not  distinguishable 
from  the  parent,  we  witness  doubtless  the 
simplest  form  of  animal  Generation,  that  by 
fission.  What  makes  it  divide?  Such  is  its 
nature,  we  ordinarily  say,  and  therewith  let 
the  matter  drop,  having  swallowed  a  little 
isolated  fact.  Still  we  are  not  satisfied,  and 
no  amount  of  science,  which  stops  with  the 
separated  fact,  however  small  or  great  this 
may  be,  is  going  to  quench  our  thirst  for  what 
lies  behind  the  external  phenomenon  and 
causes  it  to  appear.  That  tiny  act  of  micro- 
scopic fission  is  a  phase  ofthe  total  Universe 
and  must  show  itself  such  just  in  such  a  work 
of  separation,  which  in  its  way  is  creative, 
and  shares  in  primal  creation.  The  microbe, 
self -dividing  and  thus  individuating  itself, 
not  only  reflects  but  also  re-enacts  the  All 
which  does  the  same  thing.  The  exceeding 


ANIMAL  LIFE— GENERATION.  337 

minuteness  as  well  as  the  simplicity  of  the 
act  make  it  the  more  impressive,  as  it  seems 
to  interlink  and  unify  in  a  lightning  flash  of 
thought  the  extremes  of  the  Universe. 

The  foregoing  may  be  taken  as  an  instance 
of  single  Generation  in  its  simplest  stage. 
It  is  mostly  called  asexual,  as  sex  is  not  yet 
involved,  or  monogenetic  (E.  Hertwig  calls  it 
monogony  as  distinct  from  sexual  amphig- 
ony ) .  The  chief  fact  is,  Generation  now  takes 
place  through  a  single  organism,  which  here- 
in has  its  strong  resemblance  to  the  Plant- 
world,  and  hints  their  primal  unity,  ere  Ani- 
mal and  Plant  had  yet  bifurcated.  Again  we 
should  note  that  the  new  animalcule  has  in- 
herited an  undying  portion  in  its  framework, 
though  it  as  distinct  individual  should  live 
only  a  few  moments ;  by  mere  fission  it  propa- 
gates itself,  and  this  generative  act  is  an  im- 
mortal spark  of  original  creation.  The  norm 
or  type  of  Animal-life  endures  in  the  deed  of 
Generation,  though  its  manifestation  in  the 
body  is  very  finite  and  transitory.  The  crea- 
tive energy  is  what  immortalizes :  Forms  van- 
ish in  Time,  but  the  ultimate  Form-maker 
not  only  persists  through  Time,  but  re-moulds 
Time  itself  after  his  own  pattern.  So  we  have 
to  conceive  the  lowest  infusorian,  a  mere  dot 
or  blob  of  protoplasmic  life-stuff,  but  still  self- 
generative,  as  participating  in  the  one  fun- 
damental energy  of  creation. 


'338         THE  BIOCOSMOS— PARTICULARIZED. 

The  generative  division  of  the  Animal  is 
most  commonly  crosswise,  but  it  may  be 
lengthwise  or  even  oblique.  Still  another 
form  of  uni-parental  Generation  is  that  of 
budding,  which  again  recalls  the  Plant.  In 
the  lowest  animal  organism,  each  part  has 
the  tendency  to  produce  the  whole  body  under 
certain  conditions.  There  is  as  yet  no  decid- 
ed centralization  in  a  head  and  brain,  even  if 
there  be  a  limited  self -movement.  Still  these 
living  sacs  or  globules  often  dart  out  into 
something  like  trunk  and  extremities;  they 
seem  to  improvise  the  organs  of  a  higher  ani- 
mal, according  to  the  need,  and  then  take  the 
same  back  into  the  common  receptacle.  In- 
deed the  Amoeba  would  appear  to  be  a  poten- 
tial man,  the  plastic  possibility  of  the  fixed 
organs,  which  evolution  is  to  make  persistent 
in  the  lapse  of  the  ages.  Still  we  have  again 
to  -ask  who  is  the  artist  working  in  this  so 
formable  body  of  the  microbe,  and  shaping 
it  evidently  to  an  end?  Already  we  have 
noted  it  struggling^  in  fitful  outreaches  toward 
a  higher  organization — wherein  may  be  felt 
again  Nature's  deepest  aspiration  to  advance, 
even  to  advance  out  of  itself. 

In  this  field  of  single  Generation  or  asexual 
reproduction  are  many  grades  in  which  may 
be  observed  the  approach  toward  the  com- 
plete sexualization  of  reproduction,  Two 


ANIMAL  LIFE— GENERATION,  339 

cells  of  an  infusorian  often  seem  to  couple 
though  they  are  just  alike  as  far  as  can  be 
seen.  Then  dimorphism  appears  in  which 
two  different  cells  are  observed  to  conjugate 
for  reproduction.  The  so-called  parthen- 
ogenesis is  single  generation  (or  uni-paren- 
tal),  but  some  biologists  claim  that  it  is  a  de- 
generate reproduction  from  sexual  cells,  hence 
a  lapse.  Undoubtedly  single  Generation 
(monogenetic)  is  most  common  in  the  lower 
animals,  such  as  the  worms  and  ccelenterates, 
while  it  is  lacking  in  the  higher  orders.  More- 
over, as  the  animal  rises  in  the  scale,  there 
takes  place  a  differentiation  between  the 
body-cell  and  the  sex-cell,  which  act  also 
shows  a  gradation.  The  cells  of  Generation 
become  differenced  from  those  of  Assimila- 
tion, and  are  stored  up  in  their  own  special 
organ.  The  animal  which  is  still  in  a  vegetal 
stage  is  propagated  by  budding ;  its  tissues  or 
its  cells  must  possess  both  kinds  of  reproduc- 
tion, assimilative  and  generative;  it  is  still 
a  plant-animal  (phytozoon).  Outer  bodily 
growth  can  turn  into  a  new  individual,  which 
fact  indicates  a  low,  or  vegetal,  or  purely  as- 
similative stage  of  the  animal  organism,  not 
yet  evolved  to  the  fully  srenerative  stage. 
When  the  animal  is  practically  all  stomach, 
procreation  is  a  product  of  digestion — the 
generative  principle  has  not  yet  developed 


340        THE  B10COSMOS— PARTICULARIZED. 

into  its  own  organs.  In  the  higher  animals 
it  is  noticeable  that  bodily  growth  usually 
ceases  with  sexual  maturity — the  Plant  turns 
into  the  Animal,  and  adds  no  more  layers.  On 
the  other  hand  even  in  the  lower  Vertebrates, 
such  as  the  fishes,  growth  in  size  continues 
long  after  their  sexual  maturity,  probably  in 
many  cases  to  the  end  of  life,  wherein  the 
backboned  animal  still  resembles  the  Plant. 

Perhaps  the  most  striking  transition  be- 
tween asexual  and  sexual  reproduction  is  seen 
in  the  so-called  alternation  of  generations. 
For  instance  the  jelly-fish,  Bogainvillia 
ramosa,  is  on  the  one  hand  an  asexual  polyp 
which  produces  by  budding  the  sexed  medu- 
sae, which  in  turn  produce  the  asexual  polyp ; 
the  sexless  parent  brings  forth  the  sexed  off- 
spring, which  now  bring  forth  the  sexless 
grandchild,  whose  offspring  are  again  sexed. 
Such  is  the  alteration  between  the  asexual 
and  sexual  principle  in  the  same  animal, 
which  seems  to  be  struggling  out  of  the  Plant, 
yet  ever  dropping, back  into  it  as  regards  re- 
production. Single  or  uni-parental  Genera- 
tion pushes  up  for  once  into  double  or  bi-par- 
ental  Generation,  but  cannot  maintain  it  with- 
out a  dip  backward  into  its  previous  life- 
form,  where  it  rises  again.  Other  kinds  of 
alteration  between  single  and  double  Genera- 
tion have  been  observed  (for  instance  in  the 


ANIMAL  LIFE—  GENERATION. 


Crustaceans).    But  we  shall  pass  now  to  the 
latter. 

2.  Double  Generation  of  Animal-life. 
From  the  foregoing  account  we  may  observe 
a  striving  of  the  animal  toward  a  complete 
dual  sexuality,  in  which  the  separative  ten- 
dency of  Nature  would  seem  to  culminate. 
The  difference  of  sexes  in  the  higher  animals 
and  especially  in  man  shows  the  physical 
world  evolved  to  its  last  chasm,  which,  how- 
ever, is  to  be  bridged  by  the  generative  deed. 
It  is  no  wonder,  then,  that  the  biology  of  to- 
day has  brought  forward  with  so  much  indus- 
trious research  and  experiment  the  problem 
of  Double  Generation  (getting  now  techni- 
cally to  be  named  amphigony),  and  has  traced 
it  into  the  primal  genetic  cells  of  male  and 
female.  Generation  has  thus  become  cellular, 
in  accord  with  the  dominant  biological  task 
of  the  time.  The  study  of  the  behavior  of 
the  sexual  cells  (spermatozoon  and  ovum)  is 
pursued  in  great  detail  with  a  singular  fas- 
cination as  if  the  Scientist  himself  expected 
the  next  moment  to  witness  his  own  genesis. 
Of  course  this  moment  has  not  yet  arrived, 
and  probably  will  not  under  the  microscope; 
but  in  the  meantime  we  have  learned  many 
other  things.  In  this  connection  we  may  cite 
an  authoritative  formula  of  Professor  Hert- 
wig  of  Munich  :  '  l  Sexual  reproduction  is  a  re- 


342        THE  BIOCOSMOS— PARTICULARIZED. 

production  by  means  of  sexual  cells. "  But 
here  again  we  have  to  ask  for  the  origin  of 
this  origin,  for  the  source  of  this  cell-sexing, 
or  of  sexuality  itself.  Can  we  find  any  ground 
why  Nature  bifurcates  itself  anew  into  the 
two  sexes  in  order  to  reproduce  the  individ- 
ual 1  We  perceive  it  to  be  a  separation  which 
takes  place  in  both  the  vegetal  and  animal  or- 
ganism, and  which  evolves  by  many  grada- 
tions up  to  the  final  diremption  between  the 
human  male  and  female. 

We  have  often  had  to  turn  back  to  the  fact 
that  Nature  is  inherently  separative,  and  in- 
dividuates itself  by  the  necessity  of  its  origin. 
Now  this  act  of  double  or  bi-parental  Genera- 
tion is  one  method  of  Nature 's  individuation, 
that  is,  of  reproducing  the  living  individual. 
Thus  sexuality  is  an  organic  manifestation  of 
Nature's  original  creative  energy;  through 
the  sexes  man  (and  indeed  all  Life)  goes  back 
to  the  primordial  fountain  of  the  Universe  as 
self-generative  and  shares  in  that — whereby 
he  too  becomes  self -generative,  of  course  or- 
ganically. Sex,  then,  as  active  is  the  process 
of  Nature's  individuation  in  one  of  its  phases, 
that  of  creating  sexed  individuals  in  the  off- 
spring. The  Universe  as  universal  must  be 
self-creative,  whereof  the  sexual  process  has 
to  be  deemed  a  manifestation;  thus  the  ani- 
mal, may  be  said  to  universalize  itself,  of 


ANIMAL  LIFE— GENERATION.  343 

course  not  spiritually  but  naturally.  Sex,  ac- 
cordingly, taps  the  genetic  reservoir  of  total 
creation  for  its  creative  energy,  though  this 
be  only  a  little  drop  trickling  down  into  the 
individual.  And  it  may  be  here  added  that 
the  individuation  of  Nature  comes  to  its  most 
intensely  expressed  dualism  in  sex— in  the 
two  mutually  sexed  individuals  whose  func- 
tion it  is  at  last  to  overcome  this  dualism. 
For  in  sex  the  individual  feels  his  insufficiency 
as  a  whole,  feels  his  halfness,  so  to  speak  and 
will  integrate  himself  with  his  other  half. 
Thus  even  the  organism  has  the  impulse  to 
totalize  itself,  or  within  its  sphere  to  make 
itself  universal,  especially  by  going  back  to 
its  own  beginning  (say  in  the  cell)  and  repro- 
ducing its  origin — transforming  itself  from 
the  generated  into  the  generator  of  the  gen- 
erated. 

The  living  individual  as  animal  comes  in 
the  course  of  its  development  to  challenge  its 
own  origin  as  something  given,  as  something 
imposed  upon  it  externally,  in  which  it  took 
no  part.  Having  had  no  hand  in  its  own  cre- 
ation, it  grows  to  be  reactionary  to  the  coerc- 
ing law  of  its  own  being ;  it  will  not  passively 
remain  the  made,  but  will  be  the  maker  of 
itself  as  made ;  it  will  ascend  to  the  fountain 
of  its  own  existence,  and  there  will  make  it- 
self over,  will  re-enact  the  law  of  its  own  gene- 


344         THE  BIOCOSMOS— PARTICULARIZED. 

sis.  Such  is  this  deep-seated  impulse  of  sex : 
it  compels  the  individual  as  animal  to  return 
upon  his  forced  or  fated  origin,  and  to  re- 
originate  himself  in  a  new  being;  thus  he 
rounds  himself  out  to  a  complete  whole  and  is 
the  genus,  taking  up  into  himself  his  own  pre- 
supposition, prescribing  his  own  prescription. 
It  is  a  symmetrical  fact  with  Nature  that  the 
youth,  having  gotten  his  growth  and  reached 
the  age  of  puberty — that  is,  having  passed 
from  his  time  of  Assimilation  to  that  of  Gen- 
eration also — begins  to  turn  against  the  trans- 
mitted order  in  the  Family  and  even  in  the 
State ;  he  kicks  against  the  prescribed  limits 
environing  him  on  every  side;  he  will  chal- 
lenge, if  he  does  not  assail,  the  whole  institu- 
tional world  in  which  he  was  born.  He  will 
not  be  satisfied  till  he  have  a  hand  in  regulat- 
ing the  regulations  which  regulate  him;  he 
must  at  least  help  make  the  law  which  he 
obeys;  he  must  become  self -legislative  not. 
only  morally  but  also  institutionally,  if  he  is 
to  escape  from  his  negative,  anarchic  condi- 
tion. The  institutions  of  our  country  make 
the  youth  legally  self-governing  at  his  major- 
ity, when  he  has  attained  the  maturity  of  Na- 
ture and  is  questioning  the  traditional  order 
imposed  upon  him,  when  even  his  organism 
is  challenging  its  own  origin  and  seeks  to  be 
re-born  out  of  itself  in  a  new  birth, 


ANIMAL  LIFE— GENERATION. 


345 


The  man  is  not  consulted  whether  he  shall 
be  born  or  not ;  life  is  super-imposed  upon  the 
individual  without  his  knowledge  or  consent, 
so  he  aspires  for  a  kind  of  organic  freedom 
in  Generation.  The  individual  alone  can  as- 
similate but  not  generate;  in  order  to  reach 
the  creative  function  of  his  own  individuality, 
he  requires  another  individual,  symmetrical 
in  sex,  that  each  may  subsume  or  assimilate 
the  other,  and  thus  both  be  present  in  the 
third,  the  offspring.  Thus  the  spacious  prov- 
ince of  heredity  unrolls  before  us,  into  which 
stream  ancestral  contributions  by  the  million. 

The  basic  character  of  the  sexual  Process 
in  animal  Generation  has  been  already  out- 
lined. The  individual  man,  simply  living  for 
himself  through  assimilation,  is  not  the  whole 
process  of  himself,  but  the  half,  the  one  side 
which  must  find  its  completing  half  in  the  op- 
posite sex.  Desire  is  the  manifestation  of  this 
halfness,  which  longs  to  be  the  whole.  The 
sexual  individual,  being  inadequate  to  his  own 
immanent  kind  of  species  as  self-created,  is 
impelled  to  his  sexual  counterpart,  needing 
it  to  assimilate  him  to  his  beginning  and  to 
recreate  his  starting-point  as  the  new  indi- 
vidual. He  integrates  his  halfness  and  is 
taken  up  into  the  total  process  in  which  two 
sexual  halves  become  one,  the  creative  one — 
the  genus  above  both  as  individuals.  But 


346        THE  BIOC08M08—PA&TtOULARIZED. 

the  half  can  rise  to  be  the  whole  only  for  a 
moment  in  Nature,  then  it  drops  back  into 
itself  again,  into  the  previous  dualism — it 
cannot  universalize  itself  as  persistent  and 
thus  be  Spirit,  but  remains  Nature.  Still  it 
reproduces  its  own  Form,  and  on  this  side 
returns  to  the  given  Form,  to  the  type,  in  the 
new  individual,  which  is  still  a  half  and  sexed, 
and  which  will  show  the  same  natural  inade- 
quacy and  limitation  which  has  been  seen  in 
the  parents. 

Thus  the  generative  Process  of  Animal-life 
winds  up  in  an  endless  series  of  transitory 
individuals,  children  of  Time's  succession,  in 
which  they  begin  and  cease.  But  while  the 
individuals  rise  and  vanish,  the  species  or 
the  norm  persists  and  evolves  into  the  mul- 
titudinous diversity  of  shapes  present  and 
past.  Here  we  may  again  add  that  from  this 
point  of  view 'the  two  sexes  as  separate  are 
only  potential,  a  possibility,  which  becomes 
reality  in  the  genus  embracing  both  or  in  their 
generative  unity.  Parenthood  even  in  the 
realm  of  Nature  re-unites  the  separated  in- 
dividuality with  its  Creator. 

The  animal  as  generative  we  may  call  a  liv- 
ing Universal,  not  a  spiritual ;  it  rises  to  par- 
ticipation in  the  creative  fountain-head  tran- 
sitorily, then  falls  back  into  its  own  individual 
separation.  The  animal  satisfies  its  hunger 


ANIMAL  LIFE— GENERATION.  347 

and  thirst,  but  therein  has  not  really  satisfied 
itself  or  its  deepest  necessity,  which  is  to  re- 
make itself  as  a  whole  or  to  objectify  itself  as 
a  living  individual.  In  Assimilation  the  Or- 
ganism is  a  vast  laboratory,  in  which  the 
chemist  recomposes  himself  while  decompos- 
ing himself,  so  that  Chemism  here  does  not 
fall  assunder,  as  it  does  in  the  Diacosmos. 
Still  such  chemist  has  not  only  to  assimilate 
his  Organism,  but  to  generate  it  as  the  high- 
est end  of  Nature.  Now  the  result  of  Gener- 
ation on  our  planet  has  been  a  series  of  indi- 
vidual forms  trailing  through  time  down  to 
the  present.  This  series  as  a  whole  must  also 
be  considered. 

3.  Total  Generation  of  Animal-life.  Evo- 
lution has  brought  out  into  strong  relief  the 
whole  line  of  Animal-life;  in  fact  biology  in 
its  dominant  evolutionary  trend  has  largely 
dealt  with  the  Animal  as  a  more  pronounced 
living  individual  than  the  Plant.  Total  Gen- 
eration would  include  the  entire  result  of  the 
generative  Process  of  Animal-life;  it  views 
the  creative  norm  of  the  animal  realizing  it- 
self not  merely  in  a  single  individual,  but  in 
the  completely  ordered  kingdom  of  shapes. 

There  are  three  phases  or  lines  of  this 
realm  of  total  Generation.  (1)  The  present 
existent  forms  of  the  animal  world  from  low- 
est to  highest  are  to  be  graded  into  system 


348        THE  BIOC08MOS— PARTICULARIZED. 

with  its  nomenclature  (species,  genera, 
classes,  families,  tribes,  etc.).  (2)  The  past 
forms  of  the  animal  world,  as  revealed  in  the 
geologic  ages,  are  to  be  set  forth  in  their  evo- 
lution, which  shows  the  existent  fauna  aris- 
ing in  time.  (3)  The  present  individual  or- 
ganism (say  of  man),  in  its  genesis  from  its 
earliest  stage  to  its  last,  is  seen  re-evolving 
the  animal  shapes  of  the  past  from  their  start, 
recapitulating  the  historic  rise  of  the  whole 
animal  world  in  its  own  growth  as  individual. 

Now  all  three  of  these  lines  of  development 
have  the  common  movement:  they  start  far 
back  in  the  pre-cellular  life-stuff,  rise  to  the 
uni-cellular  status,  and  then  conclude  in  some 
form  of  cellular  association.  Such  is  their 
unitary  principle  of  evolution  which  indeed 
underlies  the  million-fold  grades  and  shapes 
of  animals  and  plants — those  now  being,  those 
having  been,  and  those  getting  to  be.  For 
this  reason  the  science  of  the  cell  (Cytology) 
lies  at  the  basis  of  Biology  and  unifies  its 
countless  variety  of  forms.  (See  the  preced- 
ing exposition  of  Cytology,  pp.  130-160.) 

Accordingly,  if  we  wish  to  take  a  total  sur- 
vey of  Animal-life  as  generated,  we  must  go 
back  to  the  conception  of  the  elemental  life- 
stuff  (Protobioticon)  both  vegetal  and  animal, 
to  which  we  assign  the  primal  differentiation 
into  Organic  and  Inorganic.  In  this  pre-cel- 


ANIMAL  LIFE— GENERATION.  349 

lular  material  takes  place  the  bifurcation  into 
Plant  and  Animal  ,each  of  which  moves  out 
of  this  common  starting-point  on  its  -own 
line.  The  biologist  is  still  observing  minute 
organisms  which  seem  to  be  almost  neutrals 
in  this  no-man's-land  (see  account  of  the 
Myxomecetes  on  a  former  page).  The  poten- 
tial plant-animal  (phytozoon)  now  splits,  or 
rather  unfolds  into  its  two  possibilities,  one 
of  which  we  may  call  the  first  plant  (proto- 
phyte),  and  the  other  the  first  animal  (proto- 
zoon).  Samples  of  each  sort  may  be  taken 
in  the  Bacterion  and  in  the  Amoeba. 

We  have  now  gotten  our  first  Plant  and  first 
Animal,  and  have  reached  the  epochal  fork- 
ing of  all  organic  life  into  its  two  ascending 
lines  of  living  individual  forms,  each  of  which 
henceforth  moves  on  its  own  distinct  path. 
The  stages  of  this  primordial  Earth-life  are, 
first,  protoplasmic,  and,  secondly,  phytozoic, 
which  last  stage  differentiates  into  Plant  and 
Animal.  Already  we  have  traced  the  evolu- 
tion of  the  early  Plant  (protophyte),  through 
its  various  gradations  to  its  highest  forms. 
Now  the  same  thing  is  to  be  done  for  the  early 
Animal  (protozoon).  But  just  here  is  the 
need  for  a  vast  new  class,  the  third,  embrac- 
ing all  the  animal  forms  after  the  protozoon. 
Naturalists  often  give  to  this  class  the  name 
of  metazoa,  which  include  all  the  higher  ani- 


350        THE  BIOCOSM08— PARTICULARIZED. 

mals,  those  which  are  above  the  so-called 
gastrula  stage,  and  have  attained  the  true 
cell  with  its  associative  forms.  (A  completer 
designation  would  be  metaprotozoa.)  In  like 
manner  there  should  be  a  corresponding  divi- 
sion of  Plants,  the  metaphyta  (or  better, 
metaprotophyta),  embracing  all  above  the 
protophyta.  But  this  term,  as  far  as  our 
knowledge  goes,  has  not  been  used. 

But  at  present  our  task  is  to  classify  the 
metazoa,  which  embrace  quite  all  that  we  im- 
mediately see  of  the  animal  world,  the  sphere 
of  its  associated  cellular  life,  its  varied  multi- 
plicity of  forms  up  to  man.  The  problem  of 
classifying  and  naming  these  Forms  has  al- 
ways been  present  to  the  observer,  and  such 
attempts  have  their  history,  their  consider- 
able evolution,  say  from  Aristotle  down  to  our 
own  day.  How  shall  the  vast  variety  be  in- 
ter-related and  by  what  criterion!  Tribe, 
class,  order,  family  genera  species  are  some 
of  the  names  by  which  the  ever-widening 
groups  have  been  (Jesignated.  Each  individ- 
ual animal  is  thus  co-ordinated  with  every 
other  animal,  from  least  to  largest.  We  take 
a  common  catfish  and  call  it  a  vertebrate; 
thus  we  have  conjoined  it  in  a  group  with 
all  the  upper  animals,  and  contrasted  it  with 
all  the  lower.  So  in  the  one  individual  be- 
fore us  we  are  to  see  the  whole  animal  crea- 


ANIMAL  LIFE— GENERATION, 

tion.  In  recent  biology  two  other  very  sig- 
nificant processes  have  sprung  out  of  this 
line  of  animal  Forms,  known  as  ontogeny 
and  phylogeny  (already  described). 

In  the  creeping  lizard  we  may  easily  see  a 
prophecy  of  the  human  organism  with  the 
latter  fully  developed  before  us.  Indeed  the 
homologies  of  man's  organism  have  been 
traced  back  to  the  protozoon.  But  what  fu- 
ture development  of  the  animate  Form  does 
man's  organism  prophesy!  Or  is  with  it  the 
chapter  of  organic  development  closed?  Are 
there  in  him  any  glimpses  of  that  ideal  Form 
toward  which  the  entire  line  of  animality 
seems  to  be  moving?  The  front  fin  of  a  fish 
may  prophesy  the  foreleg  and  paw  of  a  cat, 
which  member  heralds  the  toes  of  the  ourang- 
outang,  while  these  forecast  the  human  fin- 
gers— but  what  do  the  latter  prophesy?  Can 
any  scientist  point  out  a  hint  of  what  is  com- 
ing? The  question  has  the  implication  that 
man,  having  become  conscious  of  evolution, 
may  have  henceforth  to  be  consciously  evo- 
lutionary. Is  he  to  take  Evolution  out  of  the 
merely  unconscious  instinct  of  Nature,  where 
it  has  lain  hitherto,  and  to  direct  it  by  his 
self-conscious  reason?  Some  maintain  that 
the  human  body  has  reached  its  limit  of  com- 
plete Evolution;  others  say  that  our  organ- 
ism contains  many  undeveloped  organs  which 


352        THE  BIOCOSMOS— PARTICULARIZED. 

in  the  future  are  to  attain  their  completion. 
Still  again  we  hear  that  Evolution  has  passed 
out  of  Nature  (Physis)  and  is  henceforth  to 
have  its  chief  seat  of  activity  in  the  Psyche 
which  is  to  continue  in  its  sphere  the  work 
of  association  already  begun  in  the  cell.  (See 
preceding  pp.  37-53.) 

The  ordering  of  the  animal  kingdom  in  the 
present  field  (metazoa)  is  just  now  passing 
through  a  transitional  state  of  confusion,  es- 
pecially as  regards  the  larger  divisions.  The 
older  classification  into  Invertebrates  and 
Vertebrates  has  been  undermined,  and  there 
is  no  system  to  take  its  place.  Still  the  Ver- 
tebrate, though  reduced  from  the  first  rank 
to  the  third  rank  in  scientific  gradation,  main- 
tains its  authority.  That  is,  the  Vertebrate 
is  now  subsumed  under  the  Chordate,  and 
this  again  under .  the  Segmentate,  and  this 
again  under  the  Metazoa.  The  difficulty 
seems  to  be  that  the  naturalist  has  not  yet 
come  upon  the  ruling,  or  perchance  the  crea- 
tive principle  of  classifying  the  diverse  shapes 
of  the  animal  world.  Enormous  has  been 
the  advance  in  the  special  study  of  individ- 
uals, varieties,  species ;  but  with  this  develop- 
ment of  specialization,  the  science  of  today 
shows  a  lack  of  generalization.  Still  the 
reader  ought  not  to  be  set  down  wholly  in 
chaos.  What  we  have  been  able  to  think  out 


ANIMAL  LIFE— GENERATION. 


353 


for  ourselves  in  this  field,  we  shall  throw 
into  the  following  brief  summary.  Of  the 
Metazoan  system  we  make  three  divisions. 

A.  THE  PLANT-ANIMALS  or  Phytoids, 
which  must  be  carefully  distinguished  from 
the  previously  mentioned  Phytozoa,  in  which 
there  is  as  yet  no  differentiation.  But  the 
Phytoid  is  decidedly  an  animal  in  function, 
though  in  form  it  is  like  a  plant,  and  is  often 
named  from  this  resemblance  (as  the  crenoid 
or  sea-lily).  These  animals  we  place  first  and 
lowest,  since  they  have  not  yet  fully  gotten 
rid  of  the  vegetal  formative  process,  which 
they  have  in  common  with  the  Plant.  Thus 
they  must  be  considered  to  stand  nearest  to 
the  primal  bifurcation  of  the  life-stuff  into 
Plant  and  Animal.  Such  are  the  sponges, 
star-fishes,  echinoderms  (once  known  as  radi- 
ates, now  called  chiefly  coelenterates).  We 
may  also  observe  that  Phytoids  are  in  the 
process  of  getting  rid  of  their  vegetal  form, 
which  likewise  has  or  may  have  a  skele- 
ton (as  can  be  seen  in  the  star-fish).  Indeed 
the  skeletal  criterion  of  classification  may  be 
conceived  to  run  through  the  whole  gamut 
of  Animal-life  from  the  Phytoids  to  the  Ver- 
tebrates, though  sometimes  it  is  not  so  easy 
to  find. 

B.     THE  MOLLUSKS  may  be  put  next  as  the 
intermediate   or   transitional    stage,    though 


354        THE  BIOCOSMOS— PARTICULARIZED. 

there  is  a  good  deal  of  doubt  about  their  posi- 
sition  in  the  line,  the  systematists  ranking 
them  diversely.  Examples  are  the  oyster, 
snail,  cuttle-fish.  The  vegetal  form  has  dis- 
appeared, and  a  distinct  bi-lateralism  has 
arisen;  but  the  Mollusks  are  not  yet  seg- 
mented into  successive  rings,  like  the  worm 
(see  next  division).  The  skeletal  arrange- 
ment is  variable:  sometimes  inside  (cephalo- 
pods),  sometimes  outside  (bivalves  and  uni- 
valves), sometimes  quite  non-existent.  It 
would  seem  that  in  the  mollusks  the  skeleton 
is  in  its  uncertain  stage,  but  on  its  way  to  its 
articulated  form  which  culminates  in  the  ver- 
tebral animal. 

C.  THE  SEGMENTATES,  beginning  with  the 
worms  and  reaching  to  man  who  is  included. 
This  division  is  based  upon  the  so-called  seg- 
mentation of  the  animal  organism,  its  skele- 
tal arrangement  being  a  series  of  concentric 
rings  of  more  or  less  rigid  material.  The  In- 
vertebrates of  this  sort  Cuvier  called  Articu- 
lates .though  he  excluded  the  well-articulated 
vertebral  column  of  the  higher  animals ;  pos- 
sibly he  could  not  think  of  man's  skeleton 
with  that  of  a  worm  or  insect.  Such  articu- 
lation we  may  conceive  as  a  return  to  the 
Plant-animals  (Phytoids  or  Anthozoa),  and 
as  an  association  of  a  number  of  them  into  a 
new  organism,  which  still  shows  their  original 


ANIMAL  LIFE— GENERATION.  355 

more  or  less  circular  units.    This  division  we 
shall  subdivide  in  the  following  manner. 

1.  Worms,  represented  by  the  annelids,  or 
the  ringed  earth-worm. 

2.  Arthropods,  or  the  joint-footed  insects, 
spiders,  myriapods,  Crustacea. 

3.  Chordates,  in  whose  body  the  notochord 
or  primal  backbone  appears  (cartilaginous), 
which  begins  to  connect  the  articulation.    Of 
this  class  (or  sub-tribe)    there    are    several 
less  important  divisions  till  the  highest  and 
most  important  portion  of  the  animal  king- 
dom is  reached  in 

THE  VERTEBRATES. 

This  is  now  classified  as  a  division  of  the 
Chordates,  which  in  turn  come  under  the 
Segmentates,  which  in  turn  come  under  the 
Metazoa,  which  again  form  one  of  the  main 
divisions  of  the  animal  world — a  position  held 
not  very  long  since  by  the  Vertebrates.  This 
may  be  taken  as  a  sample  of  the  present  ten- 
dency to  revolutionize  former  classifications. 
Still  the  conception  of  the  Vertebrate  and  the 
word  also  hold  their  place  in  science  as  well 
as  in  literature.  The  term  belongs  to  La- 
marck (1797),  though  the  conception  existed 
before  him;  in  fact  it  has  been  traced  back 
to  Aristotle,  who,  however,  takes  the  blood 


356        THE  BIOCOSMOS— PARTICULARIZED. 

as  his  criterion  and  not  the  bones  of  the  ver- 
tebral column,  making  the  division  into  blood- 
less (invertebrate)  animals  and  blooded 
(vertebrates  with  their  four  classes — fishes, 
amphibians  with  reptiles,  birds  and  mam- 
mals). It  may  be  added  that  there  has  been 
a  recent  attempt  to  take  the  blood  in  its  cor- 
puscular constitution  as  the  criterion  for  a 
new  classification  of  Animals,  which,  in  its 
way  is  a  return  to  the  work  of  ancient  Aris- 
totle. 

But  when  it  comes  to  putting  into  order  the 
four  (or  five)  classes  of  Vertebrates — the 
fish,  the  reptile,  the  bird,  and  the  mammal— 
the  modern  anarchy  of  science  breaks  out 
afresh  with  illuminating  discord.  The  main 
point  is  to  arrange  these  so  prominent  and 
well-known  animal  shapes  into  new  divisions 
which  will  not  only  show  their  differences 
(which  are  plain  enough),  but  their  deeper 
inter-relations.  Among  the  many  attempts 
to  re-classify  the  Vertebrates,  we  may  here 
set  down  that  of  JJuxley  as  probably  the  best 
known,  beginning  with  Fishes:  (1)  Ichihy- 
opsida  (fish-looking)  in  which  the  Fishes  and 
Amphibia  are  joined.  (2)  Sauropsida  (liz- 
ard-looking) in  which  the  Reptiles  and  Birds 
are  brought  together  by  anatomical  homolo- 
gues.  This  conjunction  which  seems  now  so 
strange,  is  well-certified  by  evolution  in  the 


ANIMAL  LIFE— GENERATION.  357 

geologic  ages.  Especially  the  Archaeop- 
teryx,  a  fossil  reptilian  bird  of  the  Mesozoic, 
appears  to  furnish  the  best  sample  from  which 
the  differentiation  into  .Reptile  and  Bird  took 
start.  But  there  are  many  other  extinct  speci- 
mens of  the  same  general  kind  known  as 
pterosauria.  (3)  Mammalia  (udder-bear- 
ing). Here  the  skeletal  criterion  is  dropped 
and  the  method  of  alimentation  for  the  young 
is  taken.  The  difficulty  with  the  classification 
of  Huxley  is  that  it  has  no  leading  principle 
of  ordering  the  Vertebrates.  A  desperate  at- 
tempt to  cling  to  the  bones  as  the  standard  is 
seen  in  the  little-known  divisions,  Lyrifera 
(Fishes  and  Selachians),  Quadra tif era  (Rep- 
tiles and  Birds),  Malleif era  (Mammals).  And 
in  this  highest  class,  the  Mammals,  there  is 
found  no  small  diversity  of  ordering  from 
Linneus  till  the  present  time.  Still  there  is 
good  ground  for  dividing  the  Mammals  as  fol- 
lows: Monotremata,  oviparous  (Ornitho- 
rhyncus) ;  Marsupialia,  viviparous,  with 
pouch  for  young;  Placentalia,  having  a  pla- 
centa with  uterus.  The  last  rise  through  a 
variety  of  forms  to  the  simian  and  finally  to 
man. 

The  foregoing  line  of  development  shows 
the  ascent  of  the  human  species  through  what 
we  have  named  the  total  Generation  of  Ani- 
mal-life. On  the  whole  the  basic  principle  of 


358         T&E  BIOCOSMOS— PARTICULARIZED. 

classification  is  the  Form  as  determined 
chiefly  by  the  bony  structure.  The  assimila- 
tive Process  has  furnished  also  a  number  of 
criteria  for  ranking  the  animal,  but  they  have 
hardly  been  pivotal.  The  question  arises, 
whence  is  to  be  taken  the  ultimate  test  of  or- 
dering all  these  shapes  of  Animal-life — from 
Formation,  Assimilation  or  Generation?  Of 
course  Form  is  the  most  apparent  and  strik- 
ing, but  the  deepest  and  most  essential  fact 
of  animal  existence  is  Generation.  Already 
some  phases  of  it  have  been  seized  upon  for 
co-ordinating  certain  shapes  of  Animal-life, 
but  it  has  not  been  universally  applied.  In 
this  respect  Plant-life  seems  to  be  better  or- 
ganized than  Animal-life.  One  may  be  per- 
mitted to  think  that  there  will  be  a  gradual 
approach  in  systematic  zoology  toward  the 
generative  Process  of  Animal-life  as  the  true 
principle  of  its  order.  In  that  case  even  the 
division  of  the  Vertebrates  will  have  to  be 
supplemented,  or  probably  supplanted. 

But,  having  fairly  grasped  the  generative 
Process  of  the  living  individual,  we  find  that 
it  reaches  back  to  something  more  ultimate. 
Necessarily  individual  Life  pre-supposes  uni- 
versal Life  as  creative  of  this  Life  individual- 
ized. The  act  of  Generation  taps  the  vital 
reservoir  which  exists  already,  and  which  in- 
dividuates itself  into  the  separated  world  of 


ANIMAL  LIFE— GENERATION. 


359 


living  things.  But  the  individual  once  being 
born,  has  to  go  back  and  re-bear  himself;  he 
makes  himself  the  medium  for  the  common 
fountain  of  Life  to  pour  into  the  birth  of  what 
lives  singly.  So  we  are  led  to  inquire  after 
this  common  fountain,  the  universal  source 
of  the  individual  Life  of  Plant  and  Animal, 
which  lies  in  the  background  of  all  the  va- 
ried display  of  living  forms  on  our  planet, 
and  is  indeed  their  primal  form  forming  them 
separately. 

Such  total  Life  welling  up  into  the  single 
lives  of  the  whole  Earth,  we  shall  distinctively 
call  Earth-life,  which  embraces  in  its  com- 
plete process  the  sum  of  terrestrial  creatures 
and  their  common  living  substance.  In  it 
takes  place  that  as  yet  hidden  transition  from 
the  Inorganic  to  the  Organic,  from  the  precel- 
lular  plasm  into  the  cell,  where  lies  the  source 
of  primordial  individuation,  which  is  broached 
by  the  generative  Process,  and  set  to  flowing 
anew  into  individual  existence.  That  which 
is  known  in  Biology  as  germinal  continuity 
has  its  origin  in  this  universal  Life  of  the 
Earth,  though  this  too  originates  still  further 
back.  But  Earth-life  is  the  collective  act  of 
Nature's  individuation,  the  totality  of  vital 
units  from  the  microscopic  cell  (and  possibly 
before)  to  the  largest  organism. 


360         THE  BIOCOSMOS— PARTICULARIZED. 

We  repeat,  then,  that  the  supreme  postulate 
and  creative  pre-requisite  of  individual  Gen- 
eration, both  in  Plant  and  Animal  is  this 
Earth-life,  which  cannot  be  omitted  in  any 
complete  view  of  the  Biocosmos  whereof  it 
is  the  full  summation  and  synthesis.  Likewise 
it  has  its  own  organization  and  processes 
which  are  next  to  be  considered. 


EARTH-LIFE  IN  GENERAL. 


III.    EARTH-LIFE. 

The  two  extremes  of  living  things  may  be 
taken  as  the  microscopic  cell  and  the  Earth- 
life;  the  smallest  and  the  largest  become 
therein  counterparts,  and  are  the  first  and 
last,  between  which  all  vital  existence  is  mov- 
ing. The  shapes  of  life,  in  so  far  as  they  are 
visible,  appear  to  be  set  in  this  frame-work 
embracing  least  and  greatest,  between  begin- 
ning and  conclusion.  It  is  the  grand  living 
stream  of  existence  as  a  whole  which  we  are 
now  to  summon  before  us ;  it  seems  to  be  bub- 
bling up  from  unseen  depths  in  the  smallest 
points  of  life  which  unite,  organize  and  asso- 
ciate in  a  vast  line  of  varying  forms,  till  they 
pour  back  again  to  the  unseen  depths  of  the 
Earth-life. 

Now  is  there  any  connection  between  the 
appearance  and  the  disappearance  of  this  liv- 
ing river  before  us — is  it  simply  emptying 
back  into  the  invisible  underworld  of  its 
origin  the  contents  of  its  visible  upper  world, 
to  be  made  over  again  into  life?  Some  such 
cycle  has  long  been  conceived,  and  on  certain 
lines  rendered  probable.  The  dissolution  of 
organisms  into  their  chemical  constituents 
would  seem  to  be  a  preparation  for  their  vital 


362        THE  BIOCOSMOS— PARTICULARIZED. 

re-constitution.  Still  something  besides  chem- 
ism  is  needed  for  making  and  re-making  life. 
It  is  agreed  that  spontaneous  generation  from 
inorganic  matter  has  hardly  yet  taken  place 
within  any  limits  now  perceptible;  still  many 
a  scientist  holds  it  as  necessary  postulate  of 
Evolution.  For  if  our  planet  was  once  flung 
off  as  a  fragment  of  fire-mist  from  the  sun, 
it  must  have  become  alive  much  later.  But 
how?  Whatever  else  may  be  affirmed,  the 
Inorganic  must  have  turned  to  the  Organic. 
Furthermore,  is  this  process  still  going  on? 
It  has  not  yet  been  scientifically  detected  in 
spite  of  many  adroit  attempts.  But  such  a 
postulate  is  also  necessary;  it  is  absurd  to 
think  that  just  so  much  life-stuff  was  evolved 
from  Unlife  somewhere  and  at  some  time  on 
our  planet  just  once  for  all,  and  that  then 
this  protoplasmic  material  was  left  to  its  own 
Evolution,  which  has  been  continuing  ever 
since.  Surely  that  original  transition  from 
the  Inorganic  to  the  Organic  is  still  a  neces- 
sary part  or  stage 'of  the  life-process  of  the 
Earth,  even  if  it  yet  awaits  the  sight  of  the 
scientific  eye. 

It  would  seem  that  Earth-life  alone  can 
individuate  the  living  thing,  can  start  the 
vital  organism  on  its  career  even  as  self- 
generative.  For  the  aphorism  of  science, 
omne  vivum  ex  vivo,  calls  secretly  for  the 


EARTH-LIFE  IN  GENERAL,  353 

origin  of  the  first  living  thing  which  could 
reproduce  itself.  The  problem  is  not  simply 
whence  came  just  this  single  vital  shape  be- 
fore us,  but  whence  came  it  with  its  power 
of  self -propagation?  It  was  born  immedi- 
ately of  a  parent  who  again  had  a  parent; 
but  who  or  what  individuated  the  first  parent 
with  its  parenthood,  though  it  be  only  a  cell! 
Here  we  reach  back  to  the  source  of  all  indi- 
vidual life  on  our  planet,  the  giver  of  just  this 
individuation ;  it  must  be  a  kind  of  universal 
self-creative  life  which  imparts  itself  to  each 
tiny  bit  of  living  matter.  So  we  rise  to  the 
conception  of  Earth-life,  which,  however,  has 
to  keep  on  individuating  itself  as  universal 
and  self-generative,  in  order  to  be  the  uni- 
versal life  of  the  Earth,  of  which  every  indi- 
vidual living  thing  has  to  partake  in  order 
to  live.  From  this  each  Plant  or  Animal  gets 
its  special  vital  share,  namely  from  the  whole 
of  vitality  of  our  planet,  and  as  far  as  we 
know,  of  the  universe.  Every  day  in  our 
food  we  appropriate  a  bit  for  our  renewal; 
then  finally  our  organisms  are  plunged  back 
into  this  reservoir  of  total  Earth-life  for  some 
sort  of  re-creation.  If  we  look  back  at  the 
generative  Process,  vegetal  as  well  as  animal, 
we  find  that  it  reproduces  individuals  after  a 
given  norm.  It  therefore  reveals  itself  as  lim- 
ited, transmitted,  originated;  what  is  its 


364        THE  BIOCOSMOS— PARTICULARIZED. 

origin!  Now  this  norm  is  that  which  per- 
sists through  birth,  life,  death,  and  passes 
on  from  individual  to  individual.  It  is  the 
immortal  portion  in  Generation,  and  mani- 
fests the  participation  in  the  universal  life. 
The  generative  Process  of  the  individual  liv- 
ing thing,  be  it  Plant  or  Animal  finds  its  true 
realization  as  well  its  primal  source  in  the 
creativity  of  the  Earth-life,  which  is  accord- 
ingly the  Generation  of  Generation,  or  Gen- 
eration as  universal,  to  which  all  individual 
Generation  returns  as  to  its  fountain  as  well 
as  creative  prototype.  From  this  point  of 
view  we  may  behold  the  previous  stage  of 
Animal-life  passing  over  into  Earth-life 
through  the  generative  Process,  which  must, 
according  to  its  own  principle,  be  generated. 
Here  it  will  be  recalled  that  the  three  Life- 
forms  we  have  put  together  in  one  process— 
Plant-life,  Animal-life  and  Earth-life.  Though 
these  three  stages  become  outwardly  very  dis- 
tinct, still  we  are  to  trace,  as  far  as  possible, 
their  inner  inter-relation,  and  behold  them 
genetically  connected.  Thus  we  have  just 
seen  Animal-life  through  its  highest  act,  that 
of  Generation,  connect  with  its  primal  orig- 
inative source,  the  Earth-life.  All  special 
Generation  must  push  forward  to  the  uni- 
versal reservoir  of  Generation,  which,  how- 
ever, in  its  turn  needs  to  be  accounted  for, 


EARTH-LIFE  IN  GENERAL.  335 

and  traced  back  to  its  origin.  But  at  present 
we  seek  to  keep  before  the  mind  this  three- 
fold process  of  the  Biocosmos  in  its  ultimate 
Life-forms,  of  which  Earth-life  is  the  third 
stage  returning  to  the  first,  the  Plant,  and 
embracing  the  whole  round  of  terrestrial 
Life.  Moreover  this  differentiation  arose 
and  still  keeps  arising  with  all  its  diversity 
from  a  common  primordial  vital  protoplasm ; 
that  is,  Plant-life,  Animal-life  and  Earth- 
life  were  originally  one  undifferenced  Life, 
to  which  every  living  shape  has  to  go  back 
for  renewal.  We  may  say  metaphorically 
that  the  sphere  of  the  Earth-life  keeps  turn- 
ing on  its  own  axis  quite  as  decidedly  as  the 
sphere  of  the  Earth,  though  the  one  is  biocos- 
mical  and  the  other  cosmical;  or  the  one  has 
an  inner  vital  determination  while  the  other 
has  an  outer  mechanical  or  gravitative  deter- 
mination. 

Here  the  reflection  comes  up  that  the  en- 
tire physical  Universe  (the  Pancosmos),  so 
far  as  we  know,  lives  through  our  Earth-life 
alone.  Ours  is  the  sole  living  point  of  the 
All  as  Nature,  whose  creative  purpose  would 
seem  to  be  just  this  living  point.  The  sun 
and  even  the  stars  contribute  to  life  on  the 
Earth;  that  is,  their  energy,  cosmical  and 
diacosmical,  is  transmuted  into  the  small  dot 
of  vital  energy  of  the  globe,  in  which  each  liv- 


36(5         THE  BIOCOSM08— PARTICULARIZED. 

ing  thing  participates.  The  conjecture  lies 
near  that  there  are  other  far-off  extra-mun- 
dane forces  which  are  passing  through  the 
alembic  of  Earth-life,  in  which  they  become 
at  least  vitalized,  and  attain  a  higher  destiny. 
Still  it  is  possible,  yea  probable,  that  there 
are  other  Life-points  besides  ours  scattered 
through  the  constellated  spaces. 

We  have  already  indicated  that  there  is  an 
unseen  returning  current  in  Earth-life,  pass- 
ing from  the  cessation  of  the  living  individual 
back  to  the  beginning,  where  it  has  to  be  re- 
vitalized after  dissolution.  The  preliminary 
steps  of  this  transition  may  be  summarized 
as  follows :  (1)  The  general  change  from  the 
Inorganic  to  the  Organic,  with  which  is  close- 
ly connected  (2)  the  act  of  vital  individua- 
tion;  (3)  the  act  of  bifurcation  into  Plant  and 
Animal  lies  also  in  the  dim  foreground  of 
Earth-life,  which  thereafter  begins  to  have 
a  history  traceable  in  its  remains,  through 
ages.  But,  like  man,  Earth-life  had  its  pre- 
historic time,  which  is  very  difficult  to  reach 
directly.  Given  its  starting-point,  Geology 
has  been  able  to  point  out  in  a  general  way  the 
successive  periods  of  Earth-life,  organic  with 
inorganic.  Thus  we  seek  to  embrace  in  one 
thought  and  its  term  the  total  life  of  our 
globe;  this  is  what  we  here  call  Earth-life. 
It  also  has  its  process;  as  already  said,  it  is 


EARTH-LIFE  IN  GENERAL. 


perpetually  moving  from  the  Inorganic  to 
the  Organic,  and  from  the  Organic  back 
to  the  Organic.  The  quantity  of  Life  com- 
pared to  the  Unlife  of  our  globe  is  very  small, 
and  there  is  an  incessant  fight  between  them  ; 
the  original  struggle  for  existence  is  not 
merely  that  between  living  individuals,  but  it 
goes  back  to  the  struggle  of  Earth-life  itself 
against  its  own  inorganic  elements,  which  are 
always  seeking  to  snuff  it  out.  If  we  conceive 
total  Earth-life,  or  all  living  matter  to  be  a 
small  globe  lying  in  another  globe  of  non- 
living matter  ten  million  times  larger,  we 
have  the  quantitative  relation  between  the 
two  according  to  a  well-known  estimate,  which 
probably  is  intended  not  to  be  precise,  but 
only  suggestive. 

It  should  also  be  noted  that  Earth-life  as 
organic  has  its  round  between  two  impassable 
barriers,  or  as  yet  unpassed:  between  non- 
vital  matter  and  consciousness.  The  trans- 
formation of  Unlife  into  Life  without  the  me- 
diating germ  or  egg  has  not  yet  taken  place  — 
spontaneous  generation  is  still  disclaimed  by 
science,  even  if  it  has  to  be  postulated  in 
Earth-life.  On  the  other  hand,  the  transi- 
tion from  the  living  body  to  the  conscious 
Ego  has  not  been  scientifically  made.  So  the 
little  globe  of  Life  before  mentioned  hangs 
in  the  air,  being  isolated  from  what  goes  be- 


368         THE  BIOC08M08— PARTICULARIZED. 

fore  and  from  what  comes  after,  though  sci- 
ence is  working  at  bridges  on  both  sides. 

Plant  and  animal,  as  we  have  seen  them, 
are  individuals ;  out  of  what  do  they  individu- 
ate? We  observe  both  going  back  to  a  form 
which  is  common  or  nearly  so  and  then  un- 
folding into  a  vast  diversity  on  each  line, 
vegetal  and  animal ;  what  and  whence  is  this 
power  of  individuality  which  so  dominates 
all  Life?  It  individuates  more  and  more  in 
time,  it  keeps  specifying  (or  making  species). 
At  least  we  have  to  say  such  is  the  nature  of 
Life,  or  better,  it  is  Nature  herself  manifest- 
ing her  separative  character,  which  indeed 
carries  us  up  again  to  her  very  origin. 

Now  the  scientist  deals  or  has  dealt  quite 
exclusively  with  this  living  individual,  plant 
or  animal,  analyzing  it  into  its  parts  down  to 
cell  and  even  to  cellule,  and  on  the  other  hand 
synthesizing  it  in  various  ways  into  species, 
genera,  families,  etc.  His  microscope  can 
only  see  individuals  in  some  form,  however 
small.  Now  this  process  of  individuation 
takes  place  in  and  through  the  Earth-life, 
which  has  therein  its  primal  function.  In 
what  way?  This  lies  beyond  scientific  proof 
which,  as  already  said,  deals  with  the  living 
individual  as  plant  or  animal.  But  what  if 
the  Earth  also  with  its  Life  is  an  individual, 
source  of  all  other  living  individuals?  The 


EARTH-LIFE  IN  GENERAL.  359 

Earth  has  been  individualized  and  likewise 
vitalized,  and  we  have  to  think  it  as  impart- 
ing these  traits  to  its  progeny,  plant  and  ani- 
mal. Earth-life  is  then  the  creative  source 
and  prototype  of  all  living  individuals. 

Every  plant  and  every  animal  have  in 
themselves  a  vital  and  a  non-vital  element; 
when  burnt,  for  instance,  they  show  the  in- 
organic earth  which  is  in  their  constitution. 
Thus  each  living  individual  is  a  reproduc- 
tion of  Earth-life;  it  recapitulates  in  small 
its  primordial  big  parent.  And  its  vital  pro- 
cess is  the  continual  reduction  of  the  Inor- 
ganic (air,  water,  soil,  etc.)  to  the  Organic, 
that  is,  to  its  own  living  individuality.  Then 
after  a  cycle  of  time  it  restores  these  inor- 
ganic materials  to  its  source,  of  which  they 
form  a  part.  Such  is  the  round  of  individual 
life  with  its  birth,  maturity,  decline,  cessa- 
tion, a  copy  of  the  Earth-life,  from  which  it 
as  vital  sprang. 

The  Earth  with  its  Life,  therefore,  we  have 
to  grasp  as  an  individual;  it,  too,  has  been 
individuated,  like  the  Plant  and  the  Animal. 
Science  now  very  generally  holds  that  it  sep- 
arated originally  from  the  Heliosphere,  at  a 
certain  stage  in  the  evolution  of  the  Sun  (see 
GDsmos  and  Diacosmos,  pp.  259-265).  The 
Earth  was,  accordingly,  born  an  individual, 
whose  father,  or  we  may  say,  grandfather, 


370        THE  BIOC08M08— PARTICULARIZED. 

was  the  Cosmos.  So  this  individuation  of  the 
Universe  reaches  far  back,  really  to  the 
Pampsychosis,  which  is  in  itself  the  primor- 
dial separation.  But  what  concerns  us  now 
is  that  this  individualized  Earth  goes  on  with 
its  process  till  it  generates  the  spark  of  Life, 
somehow  passing  at  a  little  genetic  point  from 
the  Inorganic  into  the  Organic.  Of  course, 
the  When,  the  Where  and  the  How  lie  as  yet- 
beyond  the  ken  of  science — some  say  they 
never  can  be  known  (DuBois  Beymond's 
famous  ignoramus  et  ignorabimus,  a  very 
hazardous  prophecy  by  the  way,  and  indeed 
contradictory).  But  what  we  here  wish  to 
emphasize  is  that  the  Earth  becomes  a  living 
individual — or  becomes  individualized  and 
vitalized — even  if  the  vital  spot  is  very  mi- 
nute in  a  colossal  non-vital  body.  But  hav- 
ing grasped  this  point  of  view  as  genetic,  we 
may  see  Mother  Earth  reproducing  her  own 
fundamental  traits  in  plants  and  animals,  or 
in  the  vast  multitude  of  other  individuals 
primarily  earth-born. 

Naturally  the  question  comes  up:  Is  this 
Earth-individual  with  its  Life  also  transitory 
like  Plant  and  Animal?  Science  on  the  whole 
answers  affirmatively.  The  Earth  has  also 
its  cycle  of  Life,  even  though  it  lasts  millions 
or  hundreds  of  millions  of  years.  It  passes 
through  the  round  of  birth,  bloom,  decay, 


EARTH-LIFE  IN  GENERAL. 


death,  like  the  mere  insect  or  indeed  the 
microscopic  cell.  Thus  a  vast  life-scale  of  liv- 
ing things  presents  itself  to  the  mind,  from 
the  duration  of  a  few  hours  or  a  few  moments 
even,  up  to  uncounted  aeons.  But  each  Life, 
short  or  long,  is  individualized,  and  has  the 
same  general  cycle  of  existence  —  the  separa- 
tion from  and  return  to  its  elemental  source. 
Earth-life  would  seem  to  be  no  .exception. 

The  further  problem  arises  :  If  the  Earth 
with  its  Life  be  only  one  individual,  are  there 
other  similar  individuals  in  the  universe 
which  are  passing  through  their  vital  cycles? 
These  may  be  as  varied  as  our  plants  and 
animals,  and  Earth-life  may  be  only  a  kind 
of  amceba  in  the  universal  Life.  Proof  there 
is  none,  but  imagination  winged  by  science  is 
prompted  to  take  a  far-off  flight  into  the  void 
of  the  cosmos.  But  for  our  present  sight,  the 
Earth  with  its  Life  appears  a  kind  of  uni- 
versal individual,  embracing  all  living  things, 
originating  them  as  well  as  receiving  them 
back  into  its  bosom. 

Though  we  may  not  with  our  senses  be  able 
to  get  back  to  the  primal  transitional  forma- 
tion of  Earth-life,  we  can  observe  that  its 
first  function  is  to  transmute  the  Inorganic 
into  the  Organic.  This  is  the  step  to  indi- 
viduation,  and  each  living  individual  must 
draw  on  the  original  storehouse  of  Life,  not 


372        THE  BIOC08MOS— PARTICULARIZED. 

only  in  order  to  be  born  but  to  continue  exist- 
ence. It  looks  as  if  there  might  have  been 
barely  one  species  at  the  start,  which  showed 
no  differentiation  of  Plant  and  Animal;  but 
the  tendency  of  Nature  to  separation  and 
individuation  has  resulted  in  the  present  mil- 
lions of  species,  constituting  as  far  as  we 
know,  the  only  living  speck  in  the  physical 
universe.  Yet  to  bring  forth  this  speck  of 
Earth-life  would  seem  to  be  the  great  pur- 
pose of  the  Cosmos,  which  is  possibly  yet  to 
be  vitalized  from  this  speck  quite  invisible 
(humanly  speaking)  at  a  short  distance  from 
the  surface  of  our  globe. 

Earth-life,  accordingly,  we  conceive  to  con- 
tain the  elemental  start  or  Life-stuff  of  the 
planet,  then  the  sum  total  of  all  individuals 
which  are  alive  on  the  Earth.  Each  of  the 
latter  passes  through  its  cycle  and  returns  to 
its  origin  as  inorganic,  perpetuating  its  Life 
by  the  generative  process.  Earth-life,  while 
ever  revolving,  is  also  evolving  and  has  long 
been  evolving  so  that  it  has  its  history.  But 
within  human  ken  it  has  no  association  with 
other  living  individuals  of  like  kind;  it  is  its 
own  species  and  genus  as  well  as  individual. 

Many  sciences  have  been  unfolded  out  of 
Earth-life  in  its  various  aspects.  Here,  how- 
ever, we  shall  co-ordinate  its  general  process 
with  that  of  Plant-life  and  Animal-life;  thus 


EARTH-LIFE— FORMATION.  373 

the  three  Life-forms  of  the  Biocosmos  will 
show  a  certain  unity  of  order,  revealing  a 
common  process  which  belongs  to  every  liv- 
ing individual,  and  whose  stages  have  been 
already  often  designated  as  Formation,  As- 
similation, Generation.  But  the  Earth,  as  the 
sole  telluric  individual  alive  in  the  Universe, 
will  have  its  own  peculiar  ways  of  manifest- 
ing the  basic  process  of  Life  just  mentioned. 

I.  THE  FOKMATIVE  PROCESS  OF  EARTH-LIFE. 
The  Form  of  the  Earth  in  general  includes 
both  the  inorganic  and  the  organic  elements 
taken  as  not  yet  separated.  The  external 
shape  or  body  of  Earth-life  is  its  most  imme- 
diate manifestation  and  is  first  to  be  consid- 
ered. This  is  by  no  means  accidental,  but 
has  its  significance  which  is  to  be  pondered. 
The  sphericity  of  the  Earth  may  well  be 
deemed  its  primal  characteristic,  it  shows 
matter  centered  in  itself,  individualized  we 
may  say;  with  good  reason  some  educators 
have  taken  the  sphere  as  the  first  geometric 
form,  from  which  all  other  such  forms  are 
to  be  derived. 

The  spherical  Form  would  seem  to  be  com- 
mon to  most  of  the  free-moving  heavenly 
bodies,  and  may  be  taken  as  the  earliest  com- 
bination of  cosmical  Motion  and  Matter. 
That  is,  Matter  primordially  united  with  Mo- 
tion becomes  spherical.  So  the  sun,  the  plan- 


374        THE  BIOC08M08— PARTICULARIZED. 

ets  and  probably  the  stars.  Terrestrial  Form 
can  be  regarded  then,  as  a  primeval  act  of 
the  Cosmos,  the  first  individual  of  Nature. 
On  the  surface  of  the  Earth  we  may  notice 
the  same  characteristic  in  the  falling  rain- 
drops, which  are  rounded.  (On  Matter  and 
Motion  of  the  Cosmos,  see  Cosmos  and  Dia- 
eosmos,  p.  39,  etc.)  The  body  of  Earth-life 
differs  in  shape,  accordingly,  from  Plant- 
life  and  Animal-life,  which  show  a  cylindrical 
tendency.  All,  however,  strive  toward  a  cer- 
tain rotundity  of  shape. 

We  have  already  spoken  of  the  norm  of 
the  Plant  and  the  Animal,  which  is  impressed 
upon  all  individuals,  however  varied  they  may 
be.  Earth-life  has  also  its  norm  as  a  whole, 
the  invariable  and  universal  one  of  Nature; 
reaching  back  to  the  early  Cosmos.  This 
norm  of  Earth-life  we  may,  therefore,  deem 
the  cosmical  norm. 

1.  The  Earth-organism  as  a  ivhole.  Motion 
is,  then,  a  primal  element  of  the  Earth's 
material  Form,  shaping  it  and  keeping  it 
shaped.  In  other  words,  terrestrial  Form 
must  be  perpetually  reproduced  by  Motion. 
In  fact,  we  can  discern  three  main  kinds  of 
terrestrial  Motion:  first  is  axial,  which  may 
be  deemed  its  own  specially,  as  self-revolu- 
tion; second  is  orbital,  which  acknowledges 
and  obeys  an  outside  power,  the  sun;  third 


EARTH-LIFE— FORMATION.  375 

is  its  Motion  along  with  the  whole  solar  sys- 
tem around  some  supposed  cosmical  center. 
Coupled  with  these  Motions  are  the  changes 
of  day  and  night  (axial)  and  those  of  the  sea- 
sons (orbital).  What  changes  the  third  Mo- 
tion (galactal,  we  can  conceive  it)  has  brought 
or  will  bring,  is  of  course  unknown;  but  it  is 
not  improbable  that  even  this  remote  influence 
may  have  produced  some  variations  of  Earth- 
life  in  the  long  periods  of  the  past. 

The  terrestrial  sphere  in  its  spherical  mo- 
tions is  in  striking  contrast  with  the  Plant 
and  Animal.  The  Plant  is  fixed  to  the  Earth 
on  the  whole,  and  has  mainly  an  inner  move- 
ment of  growth,  a  pushing  outwards  in  lay- 
ers during  its  round  of  life.  The  Animal  in 
general  has  a  limited  power  of  locomotion  on 
the  Earth's  surface.  Both,  therefore,  mani- 
fest broken  or  finite  Motion  in  comparison 
with  the  perpetual  or  infinite  Motion  of  the 
Earth,  which  they  seem  to  have  the  power  of 
tapping  individually  for  a  small  portion  of 
motive  power. 

2.  The  Earth-organism  in  its  dual  sym- 
metry. The  sphere  is  naturally  symmetrical 
in  its  two  halves  or  hemispheres.  The  equa- 
tor is  the  well-known  median  line  of  the 
Earth  which  is  not  an  exact  sphere,  but  tech- 
nically an  oblate  spheroid.  Parallel  to  this 
median  line  are  drawn  the  lines  of  latitude 


376        TH®  BIOCOSMOS— PARTICULARIZED. 

so  important  in  Geography.  A  second  halv- 
ing of  the  Earth  into  symmetrical  parts  is 
made  by  the  ecliptic,  whose  inclination  to  the 
equator  is  nearly  twenty-three  and  a  half  de- 
grees. Another  symmetrical  halving  of  the 
Earth  is  that  of  day  and  night  produced  by 
axial  rotation,  and  hence  is  not  fixed  but  con- 
tinuous, and  also  self-returning  every  twenty- 
four  hours.  Earth-life  as  a  whole  may  thus 
be  deemed  half  asleep  and  half  awake,  spa- 
tially and  temporally,  contrasting  therein  with 
Plant  and  Animal  whose  sleeping  and  waking 
involve  the  whole  individual,  not  the  half  of 
him;  or  he  is  entirely  in  the  light  or  entirely 
in  the  night,  not  in  both  at  once. 

The  symmetry  of  the  Earth  is,  according- 
ly, of  the  two  hemispheres,  not  of  the  two 
sides  (like  the  Animal)  or  of  the  two  ends 
(like  the  Plant).  Spherical  symmetry  is  the 
simpler  and  more  immediate,  being  equally 
possible  in  many  divisions,  as  an  apple  can 
be  halved  in  numerous  ways.  Lateral  sym- 
metry of  animal^  has  but  one  true  median 
line  of  separation;  terminal  symmetry  of 
plants  has  essentially  but  one  way  parting  the 
two  symmetrical  ends  (roots  and  branches, 
including  leaves).  Still  in  the  three  forms  of 
•Life— Plant,  Animal  and  Earth— we  are  to 
note  the  common  principle  of  dual  symmetry. 

3.  The    Earth  -  organism    differentiated. 


EARTH-LIFE—FORMATION.  377 

Looking  at  the  Earth's  appearance  around 
us,  we  see  it  divided  into  three  physical  ele- 
ments— air,  water,  land — a  gas,  a  liquid  and 
a  solid.  These  we  set  down  in  the  probable 
order  of  their  origin.  In  the  great  transition 
of  the  Earth  from  its  original  mass  of  lumin- 
ous nebula  or  fire-mist,  the  air  or  atmosphere 
was  doubtless  the  first  to  evolve ;  out  of  this 
air  must  have  come  as  it  cooled  off  the  liquid, 
water,  which  is  composed  of  the  gases  oxy- 
gen and  hydrogen.  Still  further,  of  this  water 
sprang  land  which  still  often  shows,  even  on 
the  mountain  tops,  so  many  signs  that  it  once 
had  its  home  in  the  bottom  of  the  sea.  In 
such  way  science  at  present  conceives  the 
Earth's  Organism  to  have  been  differentiated 
into  its  three  main  elements  in  the  lapse  of 
geologic  ages. 

The  first  fact  about  the  terrestrial  air  is 
its  continual  motion.  As  it  is  gaseous,  its 
particles  or  molecules  are  expansible,  self- 
repellent,  though  still  subject  to  gravitation. 
The  next  fact  about  the  Earth's  atmosphere 
is  that  it  moves  in  currents,  and  that  these 
currents,  after  detours  long  and  short,  come 
back  to  their  starting  point.  For  instance, 
there  is  the  universal  sweep  of  the  winds  to- 
wards the  equator  and  then  their  deflection 
and  return  toward  the  poles,  mainly  caused 
through  the  sun's  heat.  But  in  this  general 


378         THE  BIOCOSMOS— PARTICULARIZED. 

atmospheric  ocean  there  are  many  other 
cycles  and  cyclones,  furious  and  moderate, 
great  and  small,  down  to  the  petty  momen- 
tary eddy  of  the  autumnal  breeze.  Note- 
worthy, however,  is  this  tendency  of  mobile 
air  to  run  into  circuits,  in  part  determined 
thereto  by  the  rotary  motion  of  the  round 
Earth.  The  science  of  Meteorology  deals 
with  this  great  variety  of  wind  currents  which 
are  also  the  bearers  of  heat  and  cold. 

If  air  be  the  universal  element  surrounding 
the  whole  earth,  water  is  a  partial  element 
covering  about  three-fourths  of  the  terrestrial 
surface.  The  characteristic  of  water  in  con- 
trast to  air  is  its  non-elasticity,  its  unyield- 
ing nature^  being  almost  incompressible.  It 
has  a  hard  molecular  individuality,  though  so 
easily  separative  and  penetrable;  it  is  the 
digger,  tearer  of  continents  and  leveler  of 
mountains;  also  the  chief  transporter  of 
Earth's  burdens,  not  merely  on  its  surface 
but  in  its  currents.  There  is  little  doubt  that 
land  was  born  of  water ;  also  the  earliest  life 
arose  in  the  sea,  man  still  bears  traces  that 
he  was  once  an  aqueous  monster.  Water  in 
doing  its  work  goes  in  a  circle,  running  down 
hill  in  the  rivers,  then  rising  through  evap- 
oration into  the  air  and  returning  to  the  fluvial 
sources  in  order  to  make  the  same  round  over 
again.  So  we  see  a  perpetual  process  of  these 


EARTH-LIFE— FORMATION.  379 

three  elements  together,  while  each  has  its 
own  process. 

There  is  a  question  about  a  change  in  the 
character  of  the  air,  as  well  as  about  the 
diminution  of  its  quantity.  Some  scientists 
maintain  that  the  atmosphere  is  losing  its 
oxygen  and  its  carbon  dioxide,  the  one  being 
taken  up  by  animals  chiefly  and  the  other  by 
plants,  whereby  both  pass  into  the  solid  earth. 
How  these  losses  have  been  made  good  in  the 
past  geologic  ages,  since  the  advent  of  or- 
ganic life  has  been  the  subject  of  no  little 
speculation,  and  the  question  is  still  unsettled. 
In  both  cases  supplies  have  been  supposed  to 
come  to  our  globe  from  the  outside,  and  pos- 
sibly from  the  heated  inside  also.  The  mass 
'of  air  seems  to  have  been  constant  and  its 
chemical  constituents  have  not  varied  in  pro- 
portion since  life  began  on  our  planet,  say  a 
hundred  million  years  ago.  A  small  increase 
in  the  proportions  of  oxygen  and  carbon  diox- 
ide has  been  shown  by  experiment  to  be  fatal 
to  both  Plant. and  Animal. 

On  the  other  hand,  it  is  stated  that  the  land 
of  the  globe  is  increasing.  Not  only  is  the 
area  extending  at  the  expense  of  the  water, 
but  certain  chemical  constituents  held  in  so- 
lution are  continually  deposited  as  solids,  es- 
pecially by  marine  organisms,  like  the  coral 
insect.  Possibly  in  this  case  also  there  may 


380         THE  BIOCOSMOS— PARTICULARIZED. 

be  a  cosmic  supply.  But  here  the  question 
will  arise :  Is  our  globe  always  receiving  and 
not  giving  off  anything?  And  are  comets, 
meteorites,  cosmic  dust  and  such  interplan- 
etary bodies  simply  feeders  of  our  hungry 
Earth?  If  so,  then  it  must  be  increasing  in 
size  for  the  future. 

On  the  other  hand,  danger  has  been  feared 
from  these  outside  wanderers.  The  comet 
may  be  dismissed  in  spite  of  its  threatening 
aspect,  but  not  so  easy  is  the  meteorite  to  be 
put  aside,  which  may  drop  upon  us  without 
much  warning.  Meteoric  masses  weighing 
some  tons  are  known ;  but  if  such  a  body  were 
a  mile  in  thickness,  and  were  to  fall  on  a  city, 
this  would  be  suddenly  destroyed.  A  scien- 
tist of  eminence  has  declared  that  a  meteorite 
with  a  diameter  of  twenty  miles,  "  would 
pretty  surely  be  fatal  to  all  the  land-life  of 
the  earth. "  A  possible  collision  with  an 
asteroid  has  been  broached,  especially  with 
one  whose  very  eccentric,  if  not  uncertain, 
orbit,  runs  between  the  Earth  and  Mars. 

This  differentiation  of  the  Earth's  Organ- 
ism is  what  furnishes  food  to  all  Life,  vegetal 
and  animal.  Also  to  the  Earth's  own  Life 
air,  water,  and  land  are  necessary.  Thus  con- 
sidered as  a  whole  the  Earth  is  self-feeding, 
unless  it  receives  some  aliment  continuously 
from  the  Cosmos  outside,  On  the  other  hand, 


EARTH-LIFE—ASSIMILATION. 


the  diacosmical  energies  —  heat,  light,  elec- 
tricity —  have  to  be  furnished  to  it  unceas- 
ingly, though  it  has  stores  of  its  own.  Thus 
Earth-life  assimilates  external  elements  to 
its  own  Organism. 

II.  THE  ASSIMILATIVE  PKOCESS  OF  EARTH- 
LIFE.  So  we  may  call  the  present  stage  of 
Earth-life,  keeping  the  nomenclature  in  cor- 
respondence with  Plant-life  and  Animal-life 
as  already  set  forth.  To  be  sure  the  Assim- 
ilation is  now  different;  we  grasp  the  total 
organic  world  as  assimilating  the  inorganic; 
in  fact  this  is  just  what  the  Plant  does-,  and 
also  the  Animal  in  part.  Still  this  inorganic 
element  we  here  conceive  to  be  an  integral 
part  of  the  Earth-organism  as  a  whole,  while 
the  Plant-organism  is  distinct  from  its  inor- 
ganic food,  and  assimilates  the  same  from  the 
outside.  So  to  the  Earth-body  belongs  a  non- 
vital  as  well  as  a  vital  portion  —  the  former 
being  far  the  larger  —  and  between  these  two 
portions  its  assimilative  Process  takes  place. 
In  this  way  Earth-life  may  be  looked  at  as  a 
return  upon  Plant-life,  making  itself  a  kind 
of  universal  vegetable,  as  far  as  this  is  pos- 
sible under  the  conditions,  for  after  all  is 
said  the  Earth  too  is  a  limited  individual  as 
well  as  the  Plant. 

Earth-life  employs  Assimilation  in  its  most 
immediate  stage,  even  before  the  Plant  is 


382         THE  BIOCOSMOS— PARTICULARIZED. 

distinctly  formed.  The  cell  is  built  into  a 
life,  from  something  not  alive ;  what  does  it  ? 
Here  lies  that  act  of  living  individuation 
which  is  the  primordial  fact  of  the  Biocosmos, 
in  which  Psyche  begins  to  get  inside  the-small- 
est  division  of  Nature,  the  atom  or  perchance 
the  etherion.  In  generalVit  is  Earth-lifelwhich 
has  to  assimilate  Unlife  toXLifeytrnlTsmrt  the 
living  individual,  imparting  to  the  latter  the 
same  power.  But  on  the  other  hand  Life  indi- 
vidual returns  to  Unlife  in  the  same  process 
of  Earth-life,  which  controls  all  its  children  in 
their  total  round  of  existence. 

1.  Unlife  to  Life.  Here  meets  us  again 
that  oft-mentioned  transition  from  the  Inor- 
ganic to  the  Organic,  which  dominates  all  Bi- 
ology, being  ever-present  and  hanging  over 
it  like  a  cloud  which  the  scientist  has  been 
totally  unable  as  yet  to  disperse.  To  make 
the  passage  across  the  grand  chasm  between 
Unlife  and  Life  is  the  supreme  object  and 
pursuit  of  biological  science;  meantime  it 
brings  up  to  the--  surface  in  this  desperate 
burrowing  an  enormous  amount  of  valuable 
facts,  experiments  and  observations,  which 
constitute  its  present  content.  Thus  it  has  its 
end  as  yet  ideal  which  many  say  is  unattain- 
able ;  still  the  search  is  not  lessened  but  rather 
intensified.  Some  form  of  the  much-defamed 
spontaneous  generation  lies  always  in  the 


EARTH-LIFE— ASSIMILATION.  333 

background  of  our  Biocosmos  as  a  so-called 
postulate,  somewhat  like  ether  in  the  Diacos- 
mos  (as  already  noted).  The  formation  of 
that  primal  life-stuff,  speculative  on  one  side 
yet  very  real  on  the  other  side,  out  of  which 
stream  all  living  things,  down  to  the  minutest 
cell,  has  to  be  pre-conceived  as  the  starting- 
point  of  biological  science.  On  this  subject 
we  have  dwelt  sufficiently  in  other  parts  of 
this  book  (see  p.  139,  et  passim). 

Even  the  quantity  of  this  elemental  pre- 
cellular  life-stuff  has  been  estimated.  And 
we  may  conjecture  how  much  of  it  arose  at 
the  start,  and  whether  it  is  being  exhausted ; 
where  and  when  it  began  may  be  conceived 
but  cannot  yet  be  proved.  Now  into  this  orig- 
inal protoplasm  of  Life,  Evolution  enters  and 
differentiates  it  in  many  ways. 

2.  Earth-life  as  Separative.  Here  again 
we  shall  have  to  repeat  the  pervasive  fact  of 
individuation,  which  springs  out  of  the  pri- 
mordial life-stuff  of  the  Earth,  and  enters  into 
every  living  individual — the  first  separative 
act  of  the  Biocosmos.  Earth-life  individuates 
itself  into  the  millions  of  separate  plants  and 
animals,  the  Earth  itself  being  the  proto- 
'typal  creative  individual  of  them  all,  their 
universal  individual  we  may  think  it  (if  we 
can).  Now  it  is  this  individuated  plant  or 


384         THE  BIOC08MOS— PARTICULARIZED. 

animal  with  which  science  concerns  itself  in 
one  way  or  other. 

Then  there  is  the  separation  of  Earth-life 
into  its  two  lines  of  development,  vegetal  and 
animal,  so  that  every  region  of  Earth  has  its 
double  life  known  as  Flora  and  Fauna.  More- 
over Earth-life  has  its  peculiar  circulation; 
there  is  a  continual  movement  of  these  vegetal 
and  animal  forms  called  their  geographic 
distribution  over  the  terrestrial  surface,  and 
this  movement  is  traceable  through  the  past 
geologic  ages. 

Equally  certain  is  the  final  separation,  in 
which  Life  separates  from  its  separated  in- 
dividualized condition.  It  is  the  logic  of  Life 
as  particular  that  it  ends  in  death,  for  it  is 
not  universal.  Each  living  individual  as 
Plant  or  Animal  goes  its  round  of  birth,  ma- 
turity, cessation,  when  it  returns  its  elements 
to  the  Earth-life.  It  may  propagate  itself  and 
thus  show  its  persistent  or  immortal  portion ; 
but  as  mere  individual  it  is  mortal. 

3.  Life  to  Unlife.,  There  is  the  return  of  all 
living  things  to  their  inorganic  constituents, 
which  thus  are*  ready  for  a  new  vitalization. 
Such  is  the  round  of  Earth-life,  which  inces- 
santly ejects  into  its  Unlife  vast  masses  of 
its  Life,  a  kind  of  general  excretion  of  the 
huge  terrestrial  individual,  which  therein  re- 
sembles the  small  organisms  of  Plant  and  Ani- 


EARTH-LIFE—ASSIMILATION.  335 

mal,  though  these  in  Earth-life  are  thrown  off 
as  wholes.  Death  of  the  living  individual  is 
thus  a  stage  of  the  process  of  Earth-life,  a 
restoration  of  the  borrowed  elements — air, 
water,  earth — a  return  of  the  Biocosmos  to 
the  Cosmos,  which,  however,  may  be  again 
transformed  into  Life. 

The  end  and  aim  of  living  Nature  is  to 
undo  itself  as  Life.  On  the  other  hand  the 
struggle  of  the  living  individual  is  to  preserve 
its  Life  as  its  special  boon.  Earth-life  lives 
through  the  death  of  individual  Life,  which 
forms  a  part  of  its  process.  That  is,  the  total 
Life  of  the  Earth  is  always  moving  from  the 
Organic  to  the  Inorganic.  Thus  it  comes  that 
every  living  thing  is  in  conflict  with  external 
Nature,  which  it  has  to  subsume  in  order  to 
live,  but  which  subsumes  it  in  the  end.  We 
may  conceive  two  quantities  of  Life,  one  vast 
and  one  little,  or  rather  one  all  and  one  small, 
in  a  struggle  which  winds  up  in  the  cessation 
of  the  individual  who  is  the  small  one.  This 
is,  indeed,  the  primordial  struggle  of  the  liv- 
ing individual  for  existence — the  struggle  not 
with  other  individuals  but  with  Earth-life 
itself. 

Such  is  the  seal  of  fate  set  upon  all  indi- 
viduality that  lives.  The  very  fact  of  indi- 
viduation  marks  the  limit,  and  stamps  death 
upon  the  living  object.  To  be  sure  such  indi- 


386        THE  BIOCOSMOS— PARTICULARIZED. 

viduation  springs  of  Earth-life,  which  as  Na- 
ture must  produce  this  separation  in  order  to 
exist  as  process.  Why  take  the  trouble  to  be 
born  that  you  may  die !  That  is  just  your  pen- 
alty for  getting  alive ;  you  as  so  much  Life  are 
a  part  of  the  total  Earth-life,  which  after  hav- 
ing separated  or  individuated  you',  demands 
you  back  as  its  own.  Your  final  malady, 
verily  the  malady  of  all  maladies,  is  your  liv- 
ing individuality,  which,  however  is  not  yours, 
and  which  you  must  give  back  to  the  owner. 
Meanwhile  who  are  you  1  Perchance  a  Self 
or  an  Ego  which  has  transcended  Life,  even 
Earth-life,  by  getting  its  separation  (or  in- 
dividuation)  inside  itself,  not  imposed  from 
the  outside,  and  which  can  divide  within  itself 
and  be  its  other,  while  still  remaining  itself. 
Thus  rises  a  new  kind  of  individuality,  not 
that  of  Life,  but  of  Spirit.  Not  till  the  indi- 
vidual can  put  this  outer  separation  of  the 
Earth-life  inside  himself,  can  he  persist,  hav- 
ing his  own  in di viduation  within  himself,  and 
thus  mastering  his  own  limit  of  life.  Or  we 
may  say  that  the  Universal  of  himself  is  no 
longer  external,  but  internal,  and  indeed  has 
become  his  very  process.  Or  to  use  a  still 
different  expression,  the  individual  has  now 
mastered  his  own  negative  in  Life  and  made 
the  same  his  servant.  For  the  living  indi- 
vidual is  one-sided  and  hence  perishable 


I 


EARTH-LIFE—ASSIMILATION.  337 

through  his  other,  which  is  Earth-life  hav- 
ing the  external  power  of  individuation.  But 
when  the  individual  can  individuate  himself, 
he  can  be  no  more  the  victim  of  Life  even 
of  Earth-life. 

To  die  is  on  the  one  hand  to  yield  to  Na- 
ture, to  be  subject  to  her  separation,  her  in- 
dividuation, her  negation.  But  on  the  other 
hand  it  is  also  to  transcend  Nature,  to  separ- 
ate from  her  separation,  to  serve  up  her  deep- 
est character  to  herself.  Thus  she  is  at  last 
self-undoing.  Ego,  or  Spirit,  is  this  perpetual 
dialectic  of  Nature,  making  her  final  act  not 
death,  but  the  death  of  death — the  negation 
of  her  negative.  The  ultimate  principle  of 
Nature  is  separation,  universal  separation, 
hence  in  the  end  separation  from  itself  as  Na- 
ture, or  as  the  externally  separated;  thus  it 
becomes  the  internally  separated,  or  the  self- 
separated.  In  other  words,  Nature  of  its  own 
inherent  character  rises  to  Spirit,  as  that 
which  lay  implicitly  in  it  from  the  beginning, 
and  will  not  stay  in  its  dualism,  but  is  always 
overcoming  the  same,  even  if  positing  it.  So 
we  reach  a  new  Nature,  whch  becomes  one 
with  itself  in  and  through  its  separation. 

Many  are  the  special  ways  in  which  the 
Earth-life  attacks  and  undoes  the  individual 
Life;  these  are  the  particular  diseases  which 
can  often  be  met  and  cured.  But  the  one  uni- 


388         THE  BIOCOSMOS— PARTICULARIZED. 

versal  disease  of  individuality  itself  is  incur- 
able, or  has  been  so  far.  The  supreme  fact 
here  is  that  the  living  individual  is  always 
capable  of  death ;  the  special  form  of  it,  how- 
ever, varies  in  time,  place  and  kind  of  mal- 
ady. The  physician  can  only  put  off  the  mo- 
ment, delaying  the  fate  of  Life  but  not  mas- 
tering it;  he  may  slow  its  pace  and  assuage 
its  pain,  his  best  gift  being  that  of  euthanasia 
conferred  upon  the  poor  mortal.  But  the 
original  ailment  of  individuality  itself  he  can- 
not touch  with  his  medicine  till  he  be  able  to 
confer  upon  us  the  boon  of  athanasia,  by  cur- 
ing mortality  itself  and  reversing  Nature's 
course  of  individuation.  Some  scientists  have 
indeed  intimated  that  the  death-bearing  mi- 
crobe of  old  age  is  to  be  isolated  and  then  ex- 
terminated through  the  antidote  of  all  anti- 
dotes, whereby  the  cycle  of  Life  will  return 
to  its  youth  without  having  to  pass  through 
the  underworld  of  Unlife.  The  problem  is 
whether  the  living  individual  will  ever  be  able 
to  re-bear  himself  completely,  and  start  over 
again,  without  the  mortal  dip  back  into  the 
elements  belonging  to  the  process  of  Earth- 
life  which  still  must  individuate  Life. 

Such  is  the  round  of  Earth-life,  as  it  moves 
from  Unlife  to  Life  in  all  the  latter  *s  varie- 
ties, and  then  turns  back  out  of  Life  to  Un- 
life. Assimilation  we  call  this  process,  since 


EARTH-LIFE—GENERATION.  339 

each  side  is  perpetually  assimilating  the  other 
to  itself,  that  is  the  Inorganic  to  the  Organic, 
and  then  the  Organic  to  the  Inorganic.  In 
Earth-life  we  observe  the  twofoldness :  the 
non-vital  element  is  not  outside,  but  a  part 
of  the  process  as  well  as  the  vital;  the  two 
are  mutually  assimilative.  But  in  the  Plant 
and  Animal  assimilation  was  essentially  to 
vitalize  the  non- vital  and  showed  only  one  side 
of  the  process;  while  Earth-life  shows  both 
sides,  not  only  vitalizing  the  non-vital,  but 
also  devitalizing  the  vital.  And  we  may  also 
say  that  it  keeps  individuating,  de-individuat- 
ing, and  re-individuating  Life. 

But  now  we  have  to  ask :  whence  comes  this 
Earth-life?  It  too  has  an  origin  and  a  gen- 
eration for  itself,  even  if  it  be  a  source  of 
generation  on  our  globe  for  the  individual 
Life  in  Plant  and  Animal.  This  is  what  we 
may  look  at  next. 

III.  THE  GENERATIVE  PROCESS  OF  EARTH- 
LIFE.  Again  we  should  first  note  that  this  is 
the  third  stage  of  the  total  Process  of  Earth- 
life,  and  is  primarily  the  reproduction  of  the 
Form  of  the  Earth.  For  this  Form  has  to  be 
continually  generated  by  rotary  motion,  not 
too  swift  nor  too  slow.  Thus  Generation  in 
the  present  case  is  a  return  to  Formation 
which  we  see  perpetually  re-enacted;  for  our 
globe,  even  as  to  shape,  was  not  made  once 


390         THE  BIOCOSMOS— PARTICULARIZED. 

for  all,  but  has  to  keep  re-making  itself  every 
day  and  that  too  with  no  little  speed. 

Moreover  the  Generation  of  Earth-life  has 
both  its  inorganic  and  organic  phases.  In- 
organically it  is  generated  from  the  outside, 
or  determined  by  the  Cosmos  from  which  it 
sprang;  but  organically  we  may  deem  it  es- 
sentially self-generated,  though  it  depends 
still  for  Life  upon  the  diacosmical  radiants — 
heat,  light,  electricity. 

Still  further  the  generative  Process  of 
Earth-life  is  different  from  that  of  Plant  and 
Animal;  it  produces  no  young  individual 
Earths;  reproduction  is  turned  upon  itself, 
and  brings  forth  itself  perpetually  renewed 
after  a  season  of  aging  or  of  Unlife.  The 
dual  relation  of  the  sexes  does  not  belong  to 
the  Earth  as  a  whole,  but  to  its  constitutive 
members  in  Plant-life  and  Animal-life.  It  is 
the  many  millions  of  sexual  individuals,  veg- 
etal and  animal,  which  keep  Earth-life  always 
self-begetting  within  itself.  We  may  say  that 
the  Moon  is  in  a  sense  the  child  of  the  Earth, 
having  issued  from  it;  but  that  separation 
took  place  long  before  the  birth  of  Earth-life, 
or  the  transition  from  its  inorganic  state  to 
its  organic.  The  Moon  is  supposed  to  be 
wholly  inorganic;  but  as  it  separated  from  the 
Earth  so  the  Earth  long  before  separated 


EARTH-LIFE— GENERATION.  391 

from  the  Heliosphere,  which  act  we  may  con- 
sider its  first  or  inorganic  birth. 

In  this  generative  Process  of  Earth-life 
we  can  behold  three  stages,  as  in  Plant-life 
and  Animal-life,  though  the  former  be  quite 
different  and  unique  in  its  way.  Still  they 
all  are  homologous,  and  we  shall  call  them 
by  the  same  names.  So  we  have  at  present 
Single  Generation,  which  is  not  only  asexual 
but  inorganic  and  hence  external;  Double 
Generation,  in  which  is  the  movement  from 
the  Inorganic  to  the  Organic,  with  the  appear- 
ance of  life  and  sex ;  finally  Total  Generation 
will  go  back  to  the  past  and  take  up  the  whole 
line  of  Earth-life  in  its  evolution  through  the 
geologic  ages.  In  this  common  nomenclature 
we  may  note  a  common  principle  of  Genera- 
tion running  through  all  three  Life-forms — 
Plant,  Animal,  Earth. 

1.  Single  Generation  of  Earth-life.  Let  it 
be  remembered  that  this  deals  with  the  in- 
organic act  of  the  Earth's  Generation  through 
the  primal  rotation  of  Matter,  which  results 
in  separation,  or  in  a  kind  fissiparism, 
which  is  of  course  non-vital,  yet  in 
a  sense  monogenetic.  Now  this  externally 
generative  process  which  belongs  to  the  whole 
Cosmos,  is  to  become  internally  generative 
in  each  separated  part,  when  the  latter  gets 
to  be  alive.  But  the  long  evolution  from 


392        THE  BIOCOSMOS— PARTICULARIZED. 

outer  to  inner  Generation  is  specially  the 
work  of  the  Earth-Life  in  its  totality,  whose 
first  form  is  that  of  inorganic  or  cosmical 
evolution.  So  we  bring  before  us  the  beget- 
ting of  the  Earth  (sometimes  called  Geog- 
nony). 

The  general  sweep  of  the  Earth's  genesis 
has  been  elsewhere  given.  We  may  start  with 
that  shred  of  fire-mist  or  nebulous  matter, 
in  its  first  apparent,  more  or  less  chaotic 
form  (of  which  the  great  nebula  in  Orion  may 
be  taken  as  an  example) ;  then  the  shred  be- 
comes a  part  of  the  nebulous  spiral  (say  like 
that  in  Canes  Venatici) ;  then  it  passes  into 
the  evolution  of  solar  systems,  to  which  our 
Heliosphere  belongs;  the  latter  then  throws 
off  the  planets  of  which  our  Earth  is  one; 
this  in  turn  throws  off  its  moon,  and  begins 
to  cool  and  to  solidify,  till  air,  water  and  land 
differentiate  themselves,  and  the  inorganic 
process  of  our  globe  begins  which  finally  un- 
folds into  the  organic  (for  the  cosmogonic 
evolution  of  the  Earth  see  Cosmos  and  Dia- 
cosmos,  pp.  251-256). 

Such  is  the  general  view  of  science  today, 
largely  speculative ;  but  it  does  not  stop  her e. 
It  is  supposed  that  we  have  reached  about 
the  middle  period  of  Earth-life  at  present — 
one-half  gone,  one-half  still  to  come — each 
half  representing  perhaps  a  hundred  million 


EAR  TH-LIFE— GENERA  TION. 


393 


of  years,  a  kind  of  euphemism  for  a  very  long 
time.  Earth-life  is,  then,  to  cease;  and  our 
globe  as  a  dead  cadaver  is  to  pass  through  a 
new  unseen  unillumined  stage,  perchance  the 
meteoritic,  buried  in  the  graveyard  of  the 
skies,  till  the  aeon  of  resurrection  arrives.  So 
the  transition  has  been  conceived,  with  some 
show  of  facts  though  very  inadequate.  But 
the  initial  point  is  again  reached,  namely  that 
shred  of  fire-mist  in  some  Orion  nebula  which 
is  just  emerging  once  more  into  light  out  of 
its  dark  cosmical  cemetery — whence  our 
Earth  is  again  to  evolve,  and  to  go  through 
its  round  of  existence. 

Earth-life  is,  therefore,  but  a  small  seg- 
ment in  the  vast  cycle  of  terrestrial  evolu- 
tion; of  that  vital  segment  we  here  and  now 
have  the  satisfaction  of  standing  on  the  cen- 
tral point  perchance.  But  it  is  significant  to 
note  that  the  Earth  as  individual  must  die  too, 
like  the  rest  of  us  animals  and  plants,  must 
be  resolved  into  its  original  cosmical  elements, 
must  be  dipped  into  the  Pancosmos  whence  it 
was  born,  thence  passing  to  resurrection  and 
new  life. 

So  we  picture  to  ourselves  the  total  cycle 
of  the  Earth's  existence,  the  geogonic  evolu- 
tion as  a  whole,  of  which  terrestrial  life  is 
but  a  part.  This  part  has  also  its  past  his- 
tory, its  long  evolution  down  to  the  present. 


394        THE  BIOCOSMOS— PARTICULARIZED. 

Thus  the  Earth 's  development  began  at  a  cer- 
tain time  to  bifurcate  and  to  run  double. 

2.  Double  Generation  of  Earth-life.     There 
is  a  generation  of  the  inorganic  element  o€ 
Earth-life  going  on  all  the  time;  there  is  like- 
wise a  generation  of  the  organic  element  of 
Earth-life  going  on  all  the  time ;  such  is  what 
we  here  conceive  as  the  double  generation  of 
Earth-life  which  is  now  existent  and  has  long 
existed.     The  one  embraces  the  rocks  of  the 
Earth,  stratified  and  unstratified,  with  soil, 
air,  water;  the  other  embraces  all  Life  from 
lowest  to  highest.    The  rocks  are  always  be- 
ing displaced  and  replaced  by  erosion,  up- 
heaval, subsidence  and  other  causes;  that  is, 
the  Earth  is  continually  generated  anew  in- 
organically; in  like  manner  there  is  a  per- 
petual displacing  and  replacing  of  living  indi- 
viduals, vegetal  and  animal ;  that  is,  the  Earth 
is   continually   generated   anew   organically. 
These  parallel  movements,  however,  are  deep- 
ly interwoven  with  each  other;  the  inorganic 
world  sustains  directly  or  indirectly  the  or- 
ganic, while  the  latter  helps  reproduce  the 
inorganic  (for  instance,  the  limestone  of  the 
Earth  is  mostly  if  not  wholly  the  deposit  of 
organisms).     Still  we  hold  apart  these  two 
separate  lines   of  Generation  of  Earth-life, 
especially  in  the  science  of  Geology,  in  order 
to  scan  their  interaction,     Here  it  mav  be 


EARTH-LIFE—GENERATION.  395 

added  that  the  preceding  process  of  Assim- 
ilation, in  which  each  side  assimilates  the 
other,  depends  upon  the  present  process  of 
Generation,  as  the  inorganic  and  organic 
forms  have  to  be  generated  before  they  can 
be  assimilated.  Earth-life  therefore  has 
these  two  strands,  ever  active  and  inter-active. 

The  process  of  inorganic  Generation  re- 
sults from  two  kinds  of  rocks — in  geologic 
language  the  primary  and  secondary  rocks. 
The  former  are  the  original  constituents  of 
the  Earth  cooled  and  crystallized,  hence  desig- 
nated as  igneous,  unstratified,  without  fossil 
or  organic  remains.  The  secondary  rocks  are 
the  derived,  resulting  from  the  destruction 
of  the  original  rocks  and  their  reconstruction 
through  water  (aqueous  rocks),  or  through 
the  atmospheric  agencies  (sub-aerial  rocks), 
or  through  organisms,  vegetal  and  animal. 
The  last  give  the  fossiliferous  rocks,  which 
being  also  stratified  in  succession  of  time,  re- 
veal the  past  history  of  Earth-life  along  three 
lines — plant,  animal,  mineral.  Herewith  we 
are  enabled  to  reach  back  and  take  up  the  en- 
tire sweep  of  Earth-life  in  its  generative 
movement. 

3.  Total  Generation  of  Earth-life.  Thus 
the  organic  stage  of  Earth-life  has  its  dis- 
tinct history  divided  into  numerous  epochs 
and  sub-epochs,  in  triple  record,  from  the  be- 


396        THE  BIOCOSMOS— PARTICULARIZED. 

ginning  of  life  on  our  planet  till  the  present. 
Stratification  of  the  inorganic  material  has 
preserved  the  contemporaneous  organic  re- 
mains in  various  degrees  of  completeness, 
from  a  mere  trace  or  footprint,  or  bone,  up 
to  the  entire  skeleton,  whose  flesh  and  hair 
have  continued  undecayed  in  some  instances 
through  being  encased  in  ice. 

The  science  which  deals  with  fossils  is  called 
Paleontology,  and  has  reached  large  propor- 
tions. Fossils  in  the  different  successive 
strata  of  the  same  region  indicate  which  rocks 
are  older  and  which  younger  since  the  order 
of  ascent  in  the  organic  world  is  known,  and 
thus  becomes  the  key  for  unlocking  the  rela- 
tive age  of  the  inorganic  formations.  Still 
further,  the  same  kinds  of  fossils  appear  in 
strata  very  far  apart,  on  a  different  conti- 
nent perhaps ;  all  such  rocks  are  supposed  to 
have  been  formed  in  the  same  geologic  period, 
however  distant  they  lie  asunder.  A  geol- 
ogist has  recently  estimated  that  the  total 
stratified  order  'of  the  Earth's  crust  has  a 
thickness  of  fifty  miles;  but  the  strata  are 
much  broken  and  interrupted  through  various 
causes,  and  have  to  be  put  together  from 
diverse  localities.  Fossils  have  been  called  the 
medals  of  creation,  as  they  bear  the  stamp 
of  the  historic  order  of  the  Earth's  evolution. 
Still  not  the  whole  of  this  evolution  can  they 


EARTH-LIFE— GENERATION.  397 

give,  but  only  the  organic  part,  and  not  all  of 
that.  The  earliest  organisms  have  hardly  left 
their  trace. 

It  was  an  epoch-making  scientific  act  when 
this  idea  of  ordering  the  Earth's  successive 
layers  through  their  fossils  first  began  to 
dawn  upon  a  human  brain,  and  to  be  applied 
even  to  a  limited  territory.  The  English 
claim  in  the  present  case  the  right  of  priority 
for  William  Smith  (1769-1839),  a  surveyor, 
who,  in  pursuit  of  his  calling  was  led  to 
observe  the  recurring  kinds  of  fossils  in 
strata  at  different  places.  Such  strata 
he  accordingly  sychronized,  making  them 
products  of  the  same  geologic  epoch.  What 
he  did  for  a  part  of  England  is  now 
being  done  for  the  whole  Earth.  He  also 
applied  the  basic  principle  of  the  Earth's 
evolution  that  in  a  succession  of  strata 
the  oldest  is  found  at  the  bottom.  Thus 
the  Earth  is  conceived  to  grow  by  adding 
layer  to  layer,  like  a  Plant,  round  an  unstrati- 
fied  kernel  which  is  without  fossils  (azoic). 
From  this  point  of  view  Earth-life  may  be 
compared  to  a  gigantic  tree  with  its  manifold 
concentric  layers,  which  are  continually  add- 
ed on  the  outside,  if  not  year  by  year,  at 
least  epoch  by  epoch.  How  many  such  layers 
this  Earth-tree  (the  real  Yggdrasil)  will  de- 
posit belongs  of  course  to  the  future;  but  we 


THE  BIOCOSMOS—  PARTICULARIZED. 


can  seek  to  count  the  layers  of  the  past,  as 
we  do  those  of  the  Sequoia.  And  by  such  a 
count  we  may  approximately  determine  the 
age  of  this  Earth-life  in  its  multitudinous 
sequences.  The  co-odination  of  all  the  fos- 
sils along  with  their  strata  around  the 
globe  is  now  a  main  task  of  Geology,  which 
has  to  give  at  last  a  telluric  chronology,  both 
inorganic  and  organic  up  to  date. 

The  bare  outlines  of  such  a  chronology  we 
may  here  set  down  in  the  nomenclature  usual- 
ly given  : 

(I).  Azoic,  the  era  of  Unlife,  which  in  the 
widest  sense  would  embrace  the  Earth's  earli- 
est appearance  in  a  nebulous  form,  perchance 
first  in  the  Cosmosphere,  then  in  the  Helio- 
sphere,  then  in  the  Geosphere  thrown  off 
from  the  Sun.  This  azoic  era  would  include 
the  evolution  of  the  chemical  elements,  start- 
ing possibly  with  proto-hydrogen,  which  final- 
ly evolve  into  chemical  compounds,  some  of 
which  we  have  with  us  still  in  the  form  of 
azoic  rocks,  unstratified,  upon  which  the 
earliest  strata  rest  and  begin  the  concentric 
fossiliferous  layers  of  Earth-life  already  men- 
tioned. Herewith  we  have  come  to  the  next. 

(IT).  Zoic,  the  era  of  Life  on  our  globe,  to 
which  Life  has  occurred  the  transition  from 
Unlife.  In  this  era  are  found  many  divisions 
and  sub-divisions,  of  which  the  following  may 


EARTH-LIFE—GENERATION.  399 

be  briefly  noted:  (1)  Palaeozoic  or  old-life,  in 
which  are  several  periods,  such  as  Silurian, 
Devonian,  Carboniferous.  (2)  Mesozoic,  "or 
middle-life,  which  has  also  several  periods. 
(3)  Caenozoic,  new-life,  which  is  also  sub- 
divided. As  already  indicated,  each  of  these 
eras,  and  indeed  each  of  their  subordinate 
epochs,  had  its  own  peculiar  species  which 
can  be  identified  over  the  Globe.  Then  again 
each  of  these  important  stages  had  its  spe- 
cial forms  of  Lif e ;  thus  the  Silurian  is  called 
the  age  of  mollusks,  and  the  Carboniferous 
the  age  of  coal-plants.  It  would  seenr  that 
the  total  life-stuff  of  the  Earth  was  expended 
in  a  colossal  effort  to  produce  one  kind  of 
living  thing,  animal  or  vegetal,  at  a  time.  We 
may  conceive  the  Earth-life  as  a  whole  to  be 
a  huge  animal  which  has  had  to  go  through 
various  stages  of  evolution,  at  first  a  fish, 
later  a  reptile,  and  finally  a  mammal,  which 
it  is  now,  though  once  it  turned  plant  mainly, 
back  in  the  coal  measures.  Of  course  it  has 
kept  in  general  the  living  shapes  which  it 
once  evolved,  still  its  stress  seems  to  have 
been  upon  one  great  typical  form  during  a 
given  time.  In  this  trait  Earth-life  appears 
like  an  individual  undergoing  a  series  of  meta- 
morphoses through  the  geologic  ages,  each 
of  which  is  characterized  by  such  a  metamor- 
phosis. While  the  Earth-life  may  be  deemed 


400         THE  BIOC08MOS— PARTICULARIZED. 

mainly  an  animal,  it  is  also  a  plant  and  was 
primarily  so.  In  vegetation  through  many 
flbwerless  forms,  it  finally  infloresced  in  the 
flowering  plants,  seemingly  along  with  the 
rise  of  the  mammals. 

So  far  Earth-life  has  remained  mammalian, 
culminating  in  man.  But  with  his  advent 
comes  a  great  new  transition — the  sweep  from 
Life  to  the  conscious  self.  This  still  takes 
place  upon  our  Earth,  and  is  a  part  of  its 
process.  So  we  may  set  it  down  in  the  pres- 
ent connection. 

(III).  PSYCHIC.  The  individual  has  now 
reached  the  completed  act  of  Generation  in  a 
continual  self-genesis,  which  is  Soul,  Ego, 
Self.  That  is,  he  can  separate  and  become  his 
own  other  within  himself,  thus  returning  to 
himself  and  becoming  the  whole  genetic  pro- 
cess. The  total  Generation  of  Earth-life  has 
here  gotten  inside  the  living  individual,  who 
now  individuates  himself  when  he  chooses,  or 
generates  himself  anew  in  each  act  of  con- 
sciousness, and  thus  persists  through  and  be- 
yond Life. 

Earth-life  has,  accordingly,  shown  in  its 
generative  sweep  three  great  stages — inor- 
ganic (azoic),  organic  (zoic),  and  psychic. 
Between  each  of  these  stages  yawns  a  wide 
abyss  which  science  finds  it  impossible  to 


EARTH-LIFE— GENERATION.  4Q1 

bridge.  To  pass  from  the  pre-inorganic  to 
the  inorganic,  and  then  from  the  inorganic  to 
the  vital  and  finally  from  the  vital  to  the 
psychic  are  great  flights  which  thought  alone 
as  yet  dares  attempt.  Such  a  fact  would 
seem  to  indicate  that  thought  is  itself  pri- 
mordial, antecedent  to  Nature  which  springs 
from  it  as  universal,  or  as  the  Universe. 

But  we  have  now  reached  the  conclusion  of 
the  ordering  of  the  three  Life-forms  as  par- 
ticularized separately  and  as  united  in  their 
one  process — Plant-life,  Animal-life,  and 
Earth-life.  This  portion  of  our  entire  theme 
we  have  designated  as  the  Particularized  Bio- 
cosmos,  which  has  wound  up  in  evolving  the 
inner  movement  of  the  psychic  individual, 
who  now  has  won  the  power  of  turning  back 
not  only  upon  himself  but  also  upon  all  his 
past  history,  being  in  his  evolution,  the  total 
generation  of  Earth-life,  which  he  is  next  to 
re-generate.  That  is,  we  are  to  see  that  the 
Ego  has  evolved  to  the  point  of  re-evolving 
its  own  evolution,  of  which  it  is  to  become  con- 
scious. But  this  transition  carries  us  over 
into  a  new  stage  of  the  whole  Biocosmos, 
which  now  is  able  to  look  back  at  itself,  and 
trace  its  own  past  history.  , 


$art 


HISTORICAL  BIOCOSMOS. 

We  have  to  include  in  the  science  of  Life 
not  merely  Biology,  but  the  biologist  himself 
biologising,  or  evolving  his  Biology.  Thus 
we  rise  to  the  conception  of  a  completed  Or- 
der of  Life  or  Biocosmos,  which  attains  not 
simply  the  Ego  as  evolved,  which  stage  was 
reached  long  ago,  but  as  going  back  and  evolv- 
ing all  living  Nature  up  to  itself  as  evolver, 
which  stage  belongs  emphatically  to  the  pres- 
ent time.  The  hero  of  this  Biocosmos  is  un- 
questionably Charles  Darwin,  whom  we  have 
to  grasp  as  an  evolved  Ego  returning  upon 
Nature  and  evolving  Evolution. 

It  is  worth  while  to  consider  the  fact  that 
Biology  has  its  connection  with  Biography, 
(402) 


INTRODUCTION.  4Q3 

which  is  indicated  by  the  common  Greek  word 
Bios,  Life.  Both,  too,  stand  in  relation  to 
the  Biscosmos,  of  which  we  are  treating.  It 
is  true  that  Biology  deals  more  with  the  phys- 
ical processes  of  Nature,  while  Biography  re- 
cords rather  the  mental  or  psychical  side  of 
the  individual  as  shown  in  the  occurrences 
of  his  career.  In  a  sense  we  can  say  that  the 
plant  or  animal  has  a  Biography  which  gives 
an  account  of  its  birth,  development  and  ces- 
sation. It  would  be  interesting  to  have  the 
Biography  of  a  tree  like  the  gigantic  Sequoia. 
Pedigrees  of  famous  steeds  have  a  biographi- 
cal value  to  the  horse-breeder.  But  it  is  the 
life  of  the  biologist  which  specially  concerns 
us  here,  and  is  intimately  intertwined  with 
his  science,  each  reacting  upon  the  other,  so 
that  they  become  mutually  interpretative.  The 
mind  or  consciousness  of  the  biologist  turns 
biological,  being  trained  by  what  it  works  in, 
and  it  gets  to  looking  at  the  universe  biologi- 
cally, that  is,  after  the  method  and  within 
the  limits  of  Biology.  Such  an  Ego  accord- 
ingly belongs  to  the  full  sweep  of  the  Biocos- 
mos ;  indeed,  a  line  of  such  Egos  appears,  un- 
folding in  historic  succession,  and  setting  forth 
the  various  stages  of  their  evolving  science. 
Thus  we  catch  the  outlines  of  the  historical 
Biocosmos,  which  will  arise  only  after  a  con- 
siderable evolution  on  which  we  can  look  back. 


404  THE  BIOC08MOS— HISTORICAL. 

Here  then  the  pivotal  thought  comes  up  that 
we  have  reached  not  merely  Evolution,  but 
the  Evolution  of  Evolution,  as  it  turns  round 
upon  itself  and  applies  itself  to  itself.  The 
biologist  evolves  his  science,  but  now  we  are 
to  evolve  the  biologist  evolving  his  science, 
and  behold  him  subject  to  his  principle,  illus- 
trating in  his  own  individual  life  his  evolu- 
tion of  life  in  Nature.  Nor  is  this  all:  there 
are  many  individual  lives  of  biologists  success- 
sive  in  time,  who  show  the  Evolution  of  their 
science  as  a  whole  from  its  beginning  till  the 
present  time. 

Evidently  we  have  before  us  three  phases 
of  the  evolutionary  principle:  First  is  the 
Evolution  of  biology  (the  science),  then  is 
the  Evolution  of  the  single  biologist  (the  biog- 
raphy), third  is  the  Evolution  of  the  many 
biologists  with  their  doctrines  (the  history). 
The  great  scientist  thinks  with  Nature,  or  by 
means  of  Nature,  to  whom  he  has  to  give  a 
human  voice,  which  she  strictly  has  not,  yet 
longs  for.  But  Nature  is  large,  has  many 
compartments,  each  with  its  own  character,  or 
soul  or  Psyche.  The  scientist  usually  special- 
izes, confining  himself  to  one  of  these  compart- 
ments, with  whose  Psyche  he  affiliates  on  the 
most  intimate  terms,  seeking  by  many  sorts  of 
interviews  to  get  acquainted  with  it  and  to  ex- 
press it.  Newton  was  a  cosmical  genius,  who 


INTRODUCTION.  495 

showed  the  deepest  intimacy  with  the  mechan- 
ical element  of  Nature ;  his  mind  was  born  in 
some  deep  unity  with  gravitation,  whose  law 
was  his  own  as  well  as  that  of  the  Cosmos. 
But  this  realm 's  limit  seemed  also  his  spirit's 
boundary,  his  diacosmical  genius  was  by  no 
means  so  transcendent,  and  in  the  Biocosmos 
he  has  hardly  left  a  trace.  On  the  other  hand 
Darwin's  very  soul  was  biocosmical,  and  hence 
evolutionary;  he  hardly  felt  the  inner  psy- 
chical throb  of  the  Cosmos  or  Diacosmos  as 
great  divisions  of  Nature,  or  in  one  of  their 
lesser  compartments ;  he  was  the  supreme  biol- 
ogist who  lived  on  intimate  terms  with  life 
whose  soul  he  caught  and  voiced  in  his  doc- 
trine of  Evolution. 

Suggestive  in  a  number  of  points  is  the 
comparison  between  Newton  and  Darwin,  the 
two  supreme  scientists  of  the  English-speak- 
ing race,  if  not  of  all  Europe.  Each  in  his 
own  way  sought  and  formulated  the  unity  of 
Nature  in  one  of  her  largest  phases.  Newton 
placed  all  the  material  bodies  of  the  physical 
Universe  under  one  law,  that  of  gravitation, 
which  the  sun  and  stars  obey  as  well  as  a  bit 
of  earth-dust.  Thus  the  separated  Cosmos  he 
unified  under  an  universal  principle,  and  made 
it  truly  a  part  of  the  science  of  inorganic  Na- 
ture. Darwin  likewise  performed  a  mighty  act 
of  unification  through  his  law  of  organic  evo- 


406  THE  BIOCOSMOS— HISTORICAL. 

lution,  by  which  the  living  universe  was  seen 
to  be  governed  by  a  single  principle.  The 
two  English  lawmakers  of  science  have,  ac- 
cordingly, ordered  their  respective  territories 
of  Nature,  having  done  this  not  merely  for 
their  own  people,  but  for  the  rest  of  mankind. 
In  like  manner,  we  may  be  permitted  to  think, 
England  has  elaborated  a  constitution  with 
form  of  government  which  seems  to  have  some 
attribute  of  universality  for  Europe,  since 
nearly  all  European  nations  have  adopted  it 
more  or  less  closely,  as  the  one  fundamental 
law  of  the  State.  The  two  English  scientists 
we  may,  therefore,  connect  on  one  interior 
line,  with  the  dominant  institutional  conscious- 
ness of  their  people. 

The  seventeenth  century,  that  of  Newton, 
had  to  put  under  law  all  the  diverse  and  re- 
calcitrant pieces  of  matter  in  the  physical 
universe — the  first  subjection,  we  may  deem 
it,  of  Nature 's  individuality,  which  had  been 
let  loose  along  with  man's,  from  the  clerical 
sway,  in  the  Benai'ssance.  The  free  movements 
of  natural  bodies  must  be  shown  to  be  not 
capricious  or  accidental,  but  obedient  to  legal 
control.  This  was  peculiarly  the  work  of  New- 
ton who  may  be  well  called  the  Lawgiver  of 
the  Cosmos.  (See  our  Cosmos  and  Diacos- 
mos,  pp.  170,  178,  etc.) 

On  the  other  hand  the  nineteenth  century, 


INTRODUCTION.  497 

that  of  Darwin,  felt  imperiously  the  need  of 
putting  under  law  all  the  variations  of  life,  all 
the  changes  in  living  things.  Not  only  the  ex- 
ternal movements  of  lifeless  bodies,  but  the 
internal  movements  of  vital  bodies  must  be 
seen  to  be  no  play  of  chance  or  caprice,  but 
duly  subordinated  to  control.  Species,  for 
instance,  are  not  arbitrarily  created  from  the 
outside,Sbut  evolve  freely  from  within ;  yet  this 
freedom  obeys  its  own  law.  This  must  be  re- 
garded as  a  new  stage  in  the  progressive  eman- 
cipation of  Nature,  when  she  is  declared  by 
science  to  be  in  a  manner  self-governed.  Life 
has  undoubtedly  its  anarchic,  negative,  revo- 
lutionary aspect,  but  this  will  be  seen  as  a 
transitory  phase  when  we  grasp  its  evolution- 
ary character.  Darwin  is  essentially  the  Law- 
giver of  Evolution,  and  thus  has  borne  science 
out  of  its  seemingly  destructive  attitude, 
which  it  manifests  so  decidedly  in  the  Diacos- 
mos.  Eightly  does  our  time  feel  grateful  to 
Darwin,  for  he  has  revealed  the  supreme  pos- 
itive act  of  Nature  in  the  Biocosmos,  and  has 
shown  the  rescue  from  negation  through  his 
law  of  Evolution,  which,  at  present  chiefly  bio- 
logical, is  yet  to  be  made  universal,  being  ap- 
plied in  its  way  to  the  inorganic  world,  yea 
to  Evolution  itself. 

Very  significant,  therefore,  is  this  return 
of  nineteenth  century  to  the  seventeenth,  in 


408  THE  BIOCOSMOS— HISTORICAL. 

the  endeavor  to  express  a  new  and  more  in- 
ternal unity  of  Nature.  In  a  sense  we  can  say 
that  Darwin  goes  back  to  Newton,  takes  up  the 
latter 's  far-reaching  thought  and  applies  it 
to  a  fresh  domain  of  the  physical  world.  Evo- 
lution, the  pivotal  category  of  the  Biocosmos, 
reaches  back  to  Gravitation,  the  pivotal  cate- 
gory of  the  Cosmos,  and  connects  with  it  in 
the  one  great  process  of  total  Nature.  Cos- 
mically  the  individual  body  has  its  center  out- 
side itself,  to  which  it  strives  perpetually  to 
be  restored ;  biocosmically  the  individual  body 
has  its  center  inside  itself,  out  of  which  it  un- 
folds into  its  genetic  act,  whereby  it  repro- 
duces itself  and  thus  returns  to  its  starting- 
point.  Such  is  the  simple  round  of  Life,  which, 
however,  is  but  a  stage  of  the  larger  round  of 
Nature  as  a  whole,  as  already  often  stated. 
The  interest  -here  is  to  see  the  stages  of  this 
process  taking  place  in  stretches  of  time,  in 
centuries,  generally  speaking;  also  it  concen- 
trates itself  in  the  mind  and  character  of  great 
scientists,  who  thiis  become  the  stages  of  Na- 
ture embodied,  or  rather  personalized.  So  we 
conceive  Newton  and  Darwin,  whose  lives  are 
a  manifestation  of  Natural  Science,  and  thus 
must  be  integrated  with  it. 

At  this  point  it  may  be  noted  that  Biogra- 
phy as  such  has  never  been  ordered  through 
any  universal  principle.  The  career  of  the 


INTRODUCTION.  409 

individual,  it  seems  to  be  taken  for  granted, 
is  not  amenable  to  any  law  of  development 
which  applies  to  all  careers,  whatever  be  the 
department  of  activity.  But  every  person  who 
enacts  a  life  is  an  Ego,  and  must  ultimately 
manifest  the  process  of  the  Ego,  which  is  ver- 
ily universal.  Hence  Psychology  is  the  only 
discipline  which  can  reveal  the  all-dominating 
principle  common  to  every  human  life.  Phil- 
osophy as  a  world-discipline  never  did  and 
indeed  never  could  give  a  philosophy  of  Biog- 
raphy, which  must  refuse  to  have  a  system 
foreign  to  itself  clapped  upon  its  free  tnove- 
ment.  The  science  of  Psychology,  that  is,  of 
the  Psyche  or  Self,  can  alone  penetrate  and  or- 
der the  Self  in  all  its  diversity.  Accordingly, 
Biography,  which  is  the  favorite  kind  of  lit- 
erature for  a  majority  of  people,  is  sometime 
to  reach  a  new  stage  of  its  evolution,  advanc- 
ing out  of  its  present  separative,  chaotic,  dis- 
tracted condition.  All  lives  must  show  the 
common  underlying  principle  •  or  law  of  all 
life,  which  they  in  one  form  or  other  embody. 
Newton  and  Darwin  in  the  circuit  of  their  ter- 
restrial existence,  had  the  one  common  process 
of  the  Ego;  but  with  the  former  this  took  a 
cosmical  turn  (or  mechanical),  while  with  the 
latter  it  took  a  biocosmical  turn  (or  vital). 
The  Biographies  of  both  would  give  their  uni- 
tary process,  but  would  portray  it  unfolding 


410  THE  BIOCOSMOS— HISTORICAL. 

their  separate  characteristics.  And  some  day 
we  may  have  a  science  of  Biography,  as  we 
have  long  had  a  science  (or  philosophy)  of 
History,  which  in  a  number  of  ways  is  the 
counterpart  and  complement  of  Biography. 

Accordingly  we  have  to  think  that  biologica? 
Evolution  is  not  complete  till  it  embraces  the 
corresponding  biographical  Evolution  which 
evolved  it  as  a .  science.  Both  are  forms  or 
stages  of  that  larger  Life  which  we  name  the 
Biocosmos.  Biological  Evolution  is  to  set  forth 
not  merely  the  Descent  of  Man  (or  his  Ascent, 
as  it  is  sometimes  put),  but  it  is  also  to  bring 
before  us  the  descended  Man,  the  biologist 
himself,  looking  back  and  telling  us  of  his 
Descent  from  the  beginning  (perchance  the 
monera  or  amoeba).  His  act  is  truly  the  last 
outcome  of  Evolution  which  thus  turns  about 
and  takes  up  itself  as  a  whole.  It  is  true  that 
in  such  a  case  Evolution  proper  has  evolved 
out  of  itself  and  gone  beyond  into  a  psychical 
sphere.  The  end  of  Evolution  is  to  free  the 
Psyche  from  its  immediate  bond  with  Nature, 
till  it  attains  the  power  of  self-return  within 
itself  or  self-consciousness,  and  through  this  to 
become  aware  of  how  it  gradually  won  such  a 
power.  Thus  the  Psyche  is  to  evolve  into 
being  conscious  not  only  of  its  own  immediate 
self,  but  also  of  the  genesis  of  that  self  in  its 
long  training  with  Nature  (or  Physis).  Dar- 


INTRODUCTION. 


win  indeed  is  inclined  to  limit  Evolution  to  his 
own  organism,  hardly  reaching  his  self  -re- 
turned Ego,  which  therefore  works  quite  un- 
conscious of  its  true  end,  and  in  the  deeper 
sense  does  not  know  what  it  has  done  —  name- 
ly evolved  out  of  Evolution.  Still  the  evolu- 
tionary biologist  must  not  omit  himself  from 
his  own  process;  just  he  is  the  greatest  fact 
of  it,  as  he  wheels  about  and  recreates  in 
thought  his  entire  Evolution  perchance  from 
a  microscopic  cell.  And  when  he  has  evolved 
himself  evolving  Evolution,  it  is  plain  that 
he  has  evolved  its  master.  His  Biology  thus 
winds  up  in  his  Biography,  therein  rounding 
itself  out  to  completion. 

There  can  be  no  doubt  that  his  age,  and  es- 
pecially his  nation  were  ready  for  Darwin, 
in  fact  were  calling  for  him,  and  hence  rose 
the  mighty  response  to  his  book.  This  was  a 
fact  which  Darwin  himself  did  not  always  see  ; 
he  is  inclined  to  deny  that  "the  subject  was 
in  the  air,  or  that  men's  minds  were  prepared 
for  it."  He  says  (in  his  Autobiography)  that 
he  "sounded  not  a  few  naturalists,  and  never 
happened  to  come  across  a  single  one  who 
seemed  to  doubt  about  the  permanence  of  the 
species."  Even  his  closest  friends  held  back. 
Lyell  the  geologist  and  Hooker  the  botanist, 
'  '  though  they  would  listen  with  interest  to  me, 
never  seemed  to  agree."  How  could  they 


412  THE  BIOCOSMOS— HISTORICAL. 

take  such  a  big  leap  at  once,  with  their  trans- 
mitted inheritance  of  old  doctrines!  But  Lyell 
and  Hooker  will  also  evolve,  though  they  too 
must  have  time,  like  .the  rest  of  animated  ex- 
istence. 

Now  it  is  a  curious  fact  that  his  foregoing 
statement  runs  directly  counter  to  what  he 
says  in  the  Introduction  to  his  Origin  of  Spe- 
cies, where  he  recognizes  a  goodly  number  of 
his  predecessors  in  the  matter  of  the  gradual 
modification  of  the  species.  His  object  there  is 
to  show  that  his  theme  was  in  the  air  and  had 
been  so  for  a  good  while.  He  adds  a  sug- 
gestive note  in  the  same  place:  "It  is  rather 
a  singular  instance  of  the  manner  in  which 
similar  views  arise  at  about  the  same  time, 
that  Goethe  in  Germany  and  Dr.  Darwin  in 
England,  and  Geoffrey  Saint-Hilare  in 
France,  came  to  the  same  conclusion  on  the 
origin  of  species  in  the  years  1794-5. "  The 
mentioned  Dr.  Darwin  was  Charles  Darwin's 
grandfather,  Dr.  Erasmus  Darwin,  poet-natur- 
alist as  well  as  physician,  from  whom  the 
grandson  may  have  derived  a  fair  half  of  his 
talent,  to  the  exclusion  of  his  ancestor's  other 
poetic  half.  But  the  fact  above  indicates  that 
distinguished  men  in  Germany,  France  and 
England,  each  independent  of  the  other,  more 
than  fifty  years  before  the  appearance  of  the 
Origin  of  Species,  had  at  least  suggested  its 


INTRODUCTION. 


fundamental  subject.  This  surely  shows  that 
the  idea  was  fermenting  deeply  in  the  time, 
and  was  getting  ready  to  be  born. 

It  may  be  here  remarked  that  these  oppos- 
ing statements  of  Darwin  illustrate  a  strain  of 
his  psychologic  character  :  he  was  gifted  with 
a  considerable  power  of  unconscious  self-con- 
tradiction. He  had  small  logical,  or  rather, 
dialectical  aptitude;  he  specially  disclaims 
any  success  with  metaphysics  or  mathematics, 
they  both  lay  outside  of  his  mental  domain. 
Argumentation  indeed  he  possessed,  his  great 
book  is  cast  throughout  in  the  form  of  an  ar- 
gument. On  the  whole  Darwin  in  his  life  was 
an  unf  alien,  paradisaical  spirit,  despite  his  re- 
action; little  of  the  negative  lay  in  him  con- 
sciously, all  his  friends  have  celebrated  his 
angelic  character.  He  was  one  with  Nature 
and  responded  instinctively  to  her  heart-beat  ; 
such  was  his  congenial  sphere  as  well  as  his 
limit.  Still  he  also  heard  the  call  of  his  time 
and  answered  famously  in  his  way.  This  was 
through  Nature,  who  also  gave  expression  to 
the  spirit  of  the  age  in  Darwin  's  voice,  which 
really  could  speak  no  other  tongue  but  Na- 
ture 's. 

The  foregoing  facts  of  the  age's  prepara- 
tion may  be  elaborated  a  little  further,  to 
show  more  fully  the  place  of  Darwin  as  the 
pivotal  biologist  of  the  Biocosmos,  who  biolo- 


414  THE  BIOCOSMOS— HISTORICAL. 

gically  evolves  himself  evolving  Evolution  as 
the  time's  basic  thought  expressed  in  a  cate- 
gory. Moreover  Darwin  has  his  peculiar 
method  of  Evolution:  it  takes  place  through 
Natural  Selection,  or  the  Survival  of  Fittest, 
which  involves  the  elimination  of  the  unse- 
lected  or  the  unfit.  Thus  the  method  has  a 
deeply  negative,  indeed  a  tragic  counterstroke, 
which  may  be  applied  to  nature  and  to  man 
also,  the  latter  becoming  in  the  talk  of  the 
day  the  submerged  half,  more  or  less.  Now 
Darwin  lived  and  wrought  in  the  very  hey- 
dey  of  England's  Political  Economy  with  its 
doctrine  of  ever-decreasing  means  of  human 
subsistence.  Thus  death  through  starvation 
continually  looked  the  English  people  in  the 
face ;  they  beheld  fate  stealthily  creeping  upon 
them  in  the  lack  of  the  supply  of  food.  Some 
would  survive,  the  strong,  the  rich,  the  capa- 
ble, in  general  the  fittest;  the  rest  would  sink 
beneath  the  wave.  Human  Society  in  Eng- 
land was  one  colossal  example  of  Natural  Se- 
lection, which  surged  before  and  around  Dar- 
win everywhere  who,  bearing  in  his  soul  the 
strong  impress  of  the  fact,  took  it  and  applied 
it  to  all  Nature.  Undoubtedly  the  air  which 
he  breathed  was  full  of  it,  he  heard  the  echo 
of  it  on  all  sides  from  the  statesman  and  the- 
orist to  the  bitter  shout  of  anguish  always  ris- 
ing out  of  the  hearts  of  the  poor.  The  social 


INTRODUCTION. 


order  of  his  time  and  nation,  therefore,  gave 
to  Darwin  the  push  to  his  task,  and  suggested 
to  him  his  epochal  thought. 

A  few  indications  may  be  pointed  out. 
Ricardo's  Theory  of  Rent  made  a  great  stir 
in  England  during  Darwin's  earlier  days,  and 
was  generally  accepted.  This  showed  a  selec- 
tion of  the  land,  the  best  being  taken  first,  then 
the  next  best,  till  the  poorest  soil  was  reached 
which  would  simply  furnish  food  enough  to 
keep  those  alive  who  tilled  it.  But  the  peo- 
ple needing  bread  would  still  increase;  what 
was  to  become  of  them  ?  At  least  they  would 
have  to  engage  in  the  bitter  struggle  for  ex- 
istence, which  Darwin  saw  raging  around  him 
on  every  side,  and  which  became  a  part  of  his 
consciousness.  Then  Britain  was  an  island 
whose  territorial  limits  could  not  only  be  seen 
but  decidedly  felt,  so  that  they  have  entered 
into  the  very  character  of  the  Englishman  who 
has  so  often  been  designated  as  insular.  Thus 
Nature  had  drawn  a  sea-line  around  the  sup- 
ply of  food  though  the  mouths  to  be  fed  kept 
increasing.  Necessarily  the  impressive  social 
phenomenon  in  the  British  Isles  was  the  strug- 
gle for  existence.  But  the  most  significant  of 
all  books  to  Darwin  in  his  mood  was  the  Es- 
say on  Population  by  Malthus.  This  brings 
out  that  while  sustenance  increases  only  in 
arithmetical  ratio,  population  increases  at  the 


416  THE  BIOCOSMOS-HISTORICAL. 

same  time  in  geometrical  ratio.  Again  looms 
up  portentous  that  Natural  Selection  among 
men  in  a  social  condition,  with  the  survival 
of  the  fittest  and  subsidence  of  the  less  fit. 
This  book  seems  to  have  dropped  down  upon 
Darwin's  table  at  the  pivotal  psychological 
moment.  Listen  to  his  own  record  of  the  mat- 
ter in  his  Autobiography : 

"In  October,  1838,  that  is,  fifteen  months 
after  I  had  begun  my  systematic  inquiry,  I 
happened  to  read  for  amusement  Malthus  on 
Population,  and  being  well  prepared  to  appre- 
ciate the  struggle  for  existence  which  every- 
where goes  on  from  long-continued  observa- 
tion of  plants  and  animals,  it  struck  me  that 
under  these  circumstances  favorable  varia- 
tions would  tend  to  be  preserved,  and  unfa- 
vorable ones  to  be  destroyed.  The  result  of 
this  would  be  the  formation  of  new  species. 
Here  then  at  last  I  had  got  a  theory  by  which 
to  work." 

So  Darwin  traces  his  first  glimpse  of  the 
theory  of  Evolution  through  Natural  Selec- 
tion, and  acknowledges  that  he  derives  his 
ideafrom  Malthus  ;only  he  transfers  the  strug- 
gle from  social  man  to  the  vaster  population 
of  plants  and  animals.  The  British  Island- 
ers had  become  profoundly  conscious  of  this 
struggle  in  their  midst,  for  it  had  received  em- 
phatic expression  not  only  in  Eicardo  and 


INTRODUCTION. 


Maltlms,  but  also  had  been  organized  into  an 
extensive  science  by  John  Stuart  Mill's  work 
on  Political  Economy,  a  gloomy  book  full  of 
the  modern  social  tragedy.  It  is  still  Natural 
Selection  with  its  remorseless  submergence  of 
the  weak.  From  this  fateful  impression  Polit- 
ical Economy  in  England  has  been  named  the 
Dismal  Science.  The  same  doctrine  was  car- 
ried over  into  Philosophy  by  Herbert  Spencer 
who  first  formulated  the  famous  phrase,  "the 
survival  of  the  fittest/'  It  should  be  added 
that  in  continental  America  such  an  insular 
theory  could  not  arise;  the  circumstances,  so- 
cial and  physical,  were  wanting.  There  was 
still  an  abundance  of  land,  no  limitation  of 
the  food  supply  was  visible,  and  hence  no 
social  struggle  for  existence  as  in  England. 
It  was  in  place,  therefore,  that  the  strongest 
contradiction  of  the  doctrines  of  Ricardo,  Mal- 
thus  and  Mill,  should  be  the  work  of  an  Amer- 
ican economist,  Henry  C.  Carey.  Darwin  with 
his  theory  of  Natural  Selection  could  not  have 
originated  in  the  United  States,  where  his 
social  presupposition  was  wanting  ;  he  had  to 
be  born  not  only  a  European  but  an  English 
Islander  of  the  nineteenth  century,  in  order  to 
see  and  perform  his  task  for  Nature.  Darwin 
must  be  seen  as  an  offshoot  of  the  same  eco- 
nomic world  which  produced  Robert  Owen 
with  his  early  socialism  as  the  panacea  for 


418  THE  BIOCOSMOS— HISTORICAL. 

the  ills  of  society,  and  which  developed  Karl 
Marx  with  his  later  socialism,  whose  edifice 
he  sought  to  erect  in  a  monumental  book  (Das 
Kapital).  Darwin's  Natural  Selection  should 
be  regarded,  therefore,  as  the  outgrowth  of  the 
time  and  nation  in  their  most  coercive  prob- 
lem, and  not  simply  as  an  isolated  burst  of 
individual  genius.  Shortly  before  the  publi- 
cation of  his  great  book  he  witnessed  the  excit- 
ing repeal  of  the  long-standing  corn-laws, 
which  act  threw  down  the  last  bar  to  the  un- 
restrained might  of  Natural  Selection  among 
the  British  people. 

Here  we  may  recall  that  the  nineteenth  cen- 
tury, which  was  spiritually  denned  and  for- 
mulated by  Darwin  more  than  by  any  other 
man  must  be  deemed  the  evolutionary  cen- 
tury. We  have  elsewhere  noted  that  Hegel, 
the  chief  philosopher  of  the  century,  applies 
Evolution  to  his  Absolute  Idea,  and  thus  his 
entire  system  of  thought  is  evolutionary, 
though  kept  wholly  in  the  realm  of  abstract 
thought.  That  was-  too  remote  for  the  average 
mind,  which  must  see  the  principle  working  in 
the  realm  of  sense,  which  proof  was  just  that 
furnished  by  Darwin.  Accordingly  the  biolo- 
gist and  not  the  philosopher  took  possession 
of  his  age  and  voiced  its  inmost  spirit  in  a 
way  intelligible  to  all,  elevating  at  the  same 
time  Natural  Science  into  the  utterance  of  the 


INTRODUCTION. 


universal  Self  (Pampsychosis)  and  quite  sup- 
planting its  former  royal  herald,  Philosophy. 
Hence  resulted  the  great  philosophic  subsi- 
dence, especially  in  the  last  half  of  the  nine- 
teenth century,  which  subsidence  carried  down 
with  it  a  good  deal  of  the  old  theology.  Then 
began  to  be  felt  the  need  of  a  new  formulation 
of  the  Universe  in  all  its  three  constitutive 
stages  —  :God,  World  and  Man.  For  the  two 
old  formulations  in  all  their  various  phases 
were  no  longer  sufficient  ;  Religion  and  Philos- 
ophy, the  two  ancient  world-disciplines  of  man 
and  the  greatest  trainers  of  his  spirit,  had 
been  partially  at  least  outgrown.  Not  that 
they  were  to  be  thrown  away  and  wholly  elim- 
inated from  the  great  school  of  humanity,  but 
they  must  be  supplemented  by  a  third  con- 
struction of  thought  of  the  All,  different  in- 
deed but  co-operant  and  reconciling,  for  Re- 
ligion and  Philosophy  from  the  time  of  old 
Greece  had  never  been  very  good  friends,  and 
needed  a  mediator.  At  any  rate  the  aspiration 
rose  in  the  soul  of  the  age  for  the  new  third 
world-discipline  —  an  aspiration  indicated  by 
the  deep-seated  unrest  of  the  best  spirits. 

So  it  happened  that  Natural  Science  with 
its  fresh  triumph  laid  claim  to  being  the  great 
new  dispensation.  Through  it  the  old  order 
had  been  assailed  and  partly  undermined  ;  its 
negative  might  had  indeed  been  prodigious. 


420  THE  BIOCOSMOS— HISTORICAL. 

But  did  that  make  it  competent  to  be  the  su- 
preme positive  doctrine?  Many  fervent  dis- 
ciples said  so,  and  thus  arose  the  Gospel  of 
Natural  Science,  very  ably  and  often  beauti- 
fully set  forth  by  an  army  of  literary  mission- 
aries. But  now,  as  the  smoke  of  battle  begins 
to  clear  away,  we  can  see  that  Natural  Science 
cannot  take  the  place  of  Eeligion  and  Philos- 
ophy, which  it  sought  to  do  in  the  height  of  its 
victory ;  nor  can  it  be  that  third  newest  world- 
discipline  called  for  by  the  aspiration  of  the 
time.  Still  it  is  going  to  remain,  yet  remain 
in  its  place;  Nature  is  not  the  Universe,  but 
at  most  the  second  compartment  of  it;  and 
Natural  Science  cannot,  therefore,  be  the  sci- 
ence of  the  All,  but  of  a  part,  a  phase,  a  stage. 
There  must  be  a  greater  over  it,  the  Universal 
Science  or  the  Science  of  the  Universe,  which 
determines  it,  and  gives  to  it  its  final  organ- 
ization. We  hear  in  certain  quarters  a  deep 
disappointment  with  Natural  Science,  it  has 
•not  fulfilled  what  was  expected  of  it  some 
years  ago,  especially  in  education.  In  fact  it 
has  shown  a  decided  tendency  to  separation, 
distraction,  pessimism,  in  general  to  uneduca- 
tion.  Such  a  result  comes  from  trying  to  make 
it  do  what  it  cannot  and  ought  not;  Natural 
Science  does  not  reveal  the  ultimate  unitary 
process  of  the  Universe,  and  hence  it  is  unable 
to  furnish  the  universal  method ;  yea  it  cannot 


INTRODUCTION.  421 

finally  furnish  its  own  method,  for  Nature  has 
to  be  ordered  at  last  by  something  higher  than 
itself.  Still  it  has  asserted  its  place  and  func- 
tion in  the  grand  Totality,  chiefly  through  the 
work  of  Darwin,  and  is  no  longer  to  be  con- 
temptuously cast  out  by  Beligion  and  Philos- 
ophy. 

Natural  Science  with  its  supreme  category 
of  Evolution  is  not,  therefore,  the  new-born 
world-discipline,  though  it  be  the  chief  force, 
which  is  propelling  such  an  idea  toward  real- 
isation. It  drives  us  to  forecast  what  will  be 
the  dominant  thought  of  the  twentieth  cen- 
tury. Already  has  the  question  been  asked: 
After  Darwin,  what!  Evolution  has  shown 
itself  to  be  one  side  or  part  of  a  greater 
Whole,  which  would  seem  to  be  next  in  order. 

If  we  seek  to  grasp  fully  the  place  of  Dar- 
win or  of  any  epochal  genius,  we  are  to  see 
him  as  the  mediator  between  what  may  be 
deemed  two  extremes:  the  universal  spirit  of 
the  Ages  which  is  now  to  reveal  itself  in  the 
stage  of  Evolution,  and  the  popular  mind 
which  must  be  ready  to  receive  such  a  revela- 
tion; this,  however,  has  to  be  formulated  and 
imparted  by  the  mediating  Great  Man  of  the 
time.  To  use  the  psychological  phraseology 
already  employed:  it  is  the  function  of  the 
genius  of  a  given  domain  and  time  to  mediate 
the  Pampsychosis  in  its  special  manifestation 


422  THE  BIOCOSMOS—  HISTORICAL. 

with  the  People  or  the  Folk-soul  of  the  period. 
It  may  be  said  that  in  the  nineteenth  century 
the  World's  Spirit  had  become  evolutionary, 
and  that  on  the  other  hand  the  People 's  Spirit 
was  ready  for  the  impress  which  was  also  its 
own.  Darwin  was  the  one  who  had  the  gift  of 
uttering  the  timely  message  from  God  to  Man 
(to  employ  the  religious  phrasing  of  this  mat- 
ter). Still  Darwin  is  not  the  whole  of  Evo- 
lution, nor  is  Evolution  the  whole  of  the  Uni- 
verse. 

It  has  been  already  remarked  that  there  was 
something  insular  in  the  theory  of  Natural 
Selection,  and  that  England  alone  through  its 
social  and  mental  condition  could  have  called 
forth  such  a  doctrine.  The  fittest  and  the  un- 
fit seem  engirdled  in  a  ring  of  sea,  and  the 
struggle  for  existence  takes  place.  Natural 
Selection  implies  the  sinking  of  the  unselected 
under  the  waves  of  being,  while  the  selected 
species  rises  and  floats  on  the  surface  like  an 
island,  like  England.  Civilisation  is  indeed 
saved  by  the  survival  of  the  fittest,  yet  its  tri- 
umph is  ever  accompanied  by  the  awful  trag- 
edy of  the  unfit.  Now  Darwin,  an  English- 
man and  so  an  islander,  catches  tip  this  key- 
note of  his  time  and  people  and  of  his  pecu- 
liar locality,  and  starts  to  applying  it  to  the 
whole  life  of  Nature.  But  why  just  he,  this 
individual?  What  experience  does  he  pass 


INTRODUCTION.  423 

through  whereby  he  is  selected  among  millions 
of  the  same  human  species  to  unfold  Natural 
Selection? 

Now  this  experience  as  told  by  himself,  is 
emphatically  insular,  as  he  proceeds  in  his 
voyage  on  the  Beagle  from  one  group  of  is- 
lands to  another.  He  starts  of  course  with  the 
British  Isles  which  were  doubtless  at  one  time 
connected  with  the  continent,  but  have  been 
long  separated  from  it,  and  have  developed 
their  own  peculiar  species  and  varieties  among 
living  things,  notably,  the  man  and  his  institu- 
tions. The  first  group  of  islands  to  which  the 
vessel  came  was  the  Cape  de  Verde,  lying  off 
the  coast  of  Africa,  and  closely  related  to  it, 
though  differing  from  it  enough  to  suggest 
a  little  bit  of  evolution,  if  the  thought  was 
ready.  But  the  great  insular  experience  of 
Darwin  on  his  voyage,  which  lasted  five  years 
altogether,  was  at  the  Galapagos  Islands,  in 
the  Pacific,  some  hundreds  of  miles  west  of 
South  America,  under  the  Equator.  They  were 
of  volcanic  origin,  their  geology  as  well  as 
their  fauna  and  flora  indicated  their  original 
connection  with  the  South  American  main- 
land. 

It  may  be  said  that  Darwin  at  the  Galapagos 
Islands  saw  his  theory  rise  bodily  before  his 
eyes  out  of  the  ocean.  In  the  territory  itself 
he  beheld  variation  and  descent  from  an  ances- 


424  THE  BIOCOSMOS— HISTORICAL. 

tor.  This  ancestor  was  the  continent  of  South 
America  from  which  these  different  islands 
had  been  originally  separated,  and  been  made 
to  constitute  an  entirety  together  (the  archi- 
pelago) ;  then  the  archipelago  was  divided  up 
into  a  number  of  large  and  small  islands,  and 
even  some  smallest  ones.  Says  Darwin  in  his 
Journal:  "This  archipelago  consists  of  ten 
principle  islands  of  which  five  exceed  the  oth- 
ers in  size. "  It  is  evident  that  the  earth  itself 
presented  variations  which  might  be  classified 
after  the  model'  of  Natural  History  as  family 
(the  original  continent),  as  genus  (the  archi- 
pelago as  a  whole),  and  as  species  (the  several 
sorts  of  islands),  each  of  which  finally  had  its 
individuals.  But  the  striking  fact  was  that  all 
these  gradations  were  separated  from  one 
another,  insulated  we  may  say;  and  they  all 
—family,  genus,  species,  individuals — had 
their  real  counterparts  before  the  eye.  Thus 
the  territory  itself  furnished  the  framework 
and  suggested  externally  the  order  and  evo- 
lution of  living  things  there  found. 

Again  we  shall  cite  Darwin 's  Journal :  i  l  By 
far  the  most  remarkable  feature  in  the  nat- 
ural history  of  this  archipelago  is  that  the  dif- 
ferent islands  to  a  considerable  extent  are  in- 
habited by  a  different  set  of  beings/'  that  is, 
the  life  upon  them  varies.  For  instance,  the 
tortoises  of  the  same  species  on  different  is- 


INTRODUCTION.  425 

lands  showed  so  great  differences  that  an  ex- 
perienced eye  could  tell  from  which  island  a 
given  specimen  was  brought.  Darwin  goes 
on :  "I  never  dreamed  that  islands  about  fifty 
or  sixty  miles  apart,  and  most  of  them  in  sight 
of  each  other,  formed  of  precisely  the  same 
rocks,  placed  under  a  quite  similar  climate, 
rising  to  a  nearly  equal  height,  would  have 
been  differently  tenanted."  The  physical  en- 
vironment was  quite  similar  in  all,  but  the  or- 
ganic variation  seemed  to  go  on.  Birds  of 
the  same  species  in  the  separate  islands  va- 
ried, so  did  the  flowers.  Here  then  was  vari- 
ation with  the  consequent  evolution  into  dis- 
tinct species,  mapped  out  by  localities  and  set 
directly  under  the  eye.  Insular  species  of 
plants,  animals  and  insects  fenced  off  by  the 
sea  and  confined  to  limited  territory  in  the 
separate  islands,  always  show  differences  in 
their  individuals.  Here  is  the  clew  to  Dar- 
win's chapter  on  Variation  Under  Nature  (in 
Origin  of  Species).  Seeing  this  phenomenon 
oft  repeated  in  a  little  enclosed  spot,  Darwin 
carries  it  home  and  applies  it  to  the  whole 
earth;  he  has  found  the  typical  fact  of  his 
work,  and  at  once  proceeds  to  make  the  same 
universal.  But  first  he  is  driven  to  find  the 
source  of  such  variation. 

Darwin  fully  recognized  the  foregoing  or- 
ginal  suggestion  of  his  idea.    Says  he  in  his 


426  THE  BIOCOSMOS— HISTORICAL. 

Origin  of  Species  (Chap.  II.) :  "Many  years 
ago,  when  comparing  and  seeing  others  com- 
pare, the  birds  from  the  closely  neighboring 
islands  of  the  Galapagos  Archipelago,  one 
with  another,  and  with  those  from  the  Amer- 
ican mainland,  I  was  much  struck  how  entirely 
vague  and  arbitrary  is  the  distinction  between 
species  and  varieties, ' '  and  he  might  have  add- 
ed genera.  In  fact  there  was  no  fixed  bound- 
ary line  between  these  classes;  every  indi- 
vidual, plant  and  animal,  varied  from  its  par- 
ents and  from  its  brothers  and  sisters.  Va- 
riability of  all  living  organisms  thus  became 
his  germinal  starting-point,  seen  plain  in  the 
Galapagos  Islands ;  but  when  he  went  home  to 
his  own  British  Island  and  saw  the  intense  in- 
sular struggle  for  existence,  he  found  his  sec- 
ond great  category,  Natural  Selection,  as  the 
chief,  though  not  the  only,  ground  of  this  con- 
dition in  which  the  fittest  persist  and  propa- 
gate. Says  he:  "As  more  individuals  are 
produced  than  can  possibly  survive,  there 
must  in  every  case  be  a  struggle  for  exist- 
ence. "  But  who  will  survive?  Those  indi- 
viduals "which  have  favorable  differences  and 
variations"  are  preserved,  while  the  injurious 
variations  will  cause  destruction.  He  also 
states  (Origin,  II),  whence  he  derived  his 
view:  "It  is  the  doctrine  of  Malthus  applied 
with  manifold  force  to  the  whole  animal  and 


INTRODUCTION.  427 

vegetable  kingdoms. "  Thus  also  he  applied 
the  Galapagos  Islands  as  a  kind  of  measuring- 
rod  to  the  whole  earth,  dividing  it  up  into  so 
many  insular  units  of  the  migration  of  flora 
and  fauna,  and  hence  of  geographical  distri- 
bution, as  well  as  of  variation. 

The  individual  Darwin  is,  accordingly,  a 
product  of  his  environment  working  with  his 
inherited  gifts.  As  stated  some  pages  back 
there  was  an  insular  element  in  his  character 
and  career,  otherwise  he  would  never  have 
evolved  Evolution  by  Natural  Selection.  An 
insular  Evolution  had  evolved  him  the  erolver 
of  insular  Evolution.  The  sight  of  the  Gala- 
pagos Islands,  and  their  living  inhabitants, 
brought  him  to  a  consciousness  of  his  own 
deepest  self  and  of  his  life's  task;  they  were 
Nature's  outer  manifestation  of  what  lay  in 
him,  and  so  he  beheld  himself  in  them  as  in 
a  mirror.  He  as  naturalist  had  found  his  true 
counterpart  in  Nature,  and  began  at  once  to 
unfold  and  describe  what  he  saw.  He  had  dis- 
covered the  world  (or  quite  a  fragment  there- 
of), and  then  he  sets  about  discovering  himself 
in  the  world  everywhere. 

This  brings  us  to  a  new  stage  of  his  devel- 
opment or  personal  evolution;  and  we  are  led 
to  ask  what  are  all  these  stages.  Darwin's 
individual  evolution  to  the  point  where  he  saw 
and  evolved  organic  evolution,  making  the 


428  THE  BIOCOSMOS — HISTORICAL. 

universal  life  of  Nature  the  content  of  his  own 
life  as  conscious,  cannot  be  left  out  of  a  com- 
plete survey  of  the  Biocosmos,  which  thus 
not  simply  evolves  as  a  natural  object,  but 
beholds  itself  evolving  through  the  ages- — the 
evolver  standing  not  outside  but  inside  of  Evo- 
lution, not  merely  a  spectator  but  a  partici- 
pant active,  yea  necessary.  Evolution  would 
not  be  complete  without  having  evolved  Dar- 
win— its  culminating  act  in  some  respects. 
Still  we  are  not  to  forget  that  before  and  after 
Darwin  runs  a  lin^  of  biological  Egos  engaged 
in  the  work  of  evolving  Evolution,  and  them- 
selves a  part  thereof  also.  This  fact  brings 
to  the  surface  the  historical  side  of  the  Bio- 
cosmos,  and  shows  that  the  doctrine  of  Evo- 
lution had  long  been  evolving  and  is  still  at 
its  task.  But  the  all-dominating  personality 
in  this  field  is  Darwin  whose  individual  evo- 
lution we  wish  to  see  as  an  illustration,  yea 
as  an  integral  part  of  universal  Evolution. 
So  .next  we  have  to  unfold  the  biographical 
Darwin  to  his  place  in  the  Biocosmos. 


DARWIN'S  BIOGRAPHY.  429 


I.     DARWIN'S  BIOGRAPHY. 

The  Biography  of  the  biologist,  the  Evolu- 
tion of  the  evolver  of  Evolution,  the  life  of 
the  man  who  unfolds  Life — such  we  wish  to 
grasp  in  its  main  outlines,  as  an  essential 
stage  of  the  Biocosmos,  which  seeks  to  order 
the  totality  of  Life.  As  Darwin  turned  back 
and  showed  the  development  of  his  own  or- 
ganism physically,  so  we  are  to  see  him  de- 
veloping this  development  mentally  (foorn 
1809,  died  1882). 

Evidently  here  are  woven  together  two 
strands,  two  kinds  of  life  which  we  may  call 
organic  and  psychic.  Darwin  evolved  organic 
Evolution  through  its  various  forms,  but  his 
act  therein  was  psychical  or  mental.  Now  to 
perform  such  a  mental  act,  he  had  to  have 
his  preliminary  training,  or  his  Spirit's  Evo- 
lution into  seeing  Nature's  Evolution. 

This  is  to  be  unfolded  in  his  Biography. 
But  after  he  had  written  his  great  evolution- 
ary work  (Origin  of  Species)  he  lived  many 
years,  making  new  application  of  his  prin- 
ciple. Accordingly  we  may  observe  three 
leading  stages  in  his  career : ' 

First  is  his  period  of  education,  which  we 
may  call  his  Apprenticeship,  till  he  found 


430  THE  BIOCOSMOS— HISTORICAL. 

himself  and  his  vocation,  through  his  voyage 
as  naturalist  on  the  Beagle. 

Second  is  the  period  of  elaboration  from 
his  germinal  point  of  view,  which  view  he 
brings  back  with  him  as  his  instinctive  yet 
creative  idea ;  this  is  what  is  now  to  clothe  it- 
self with  facts  of  organic  life. 

Third  is  the  period  in  which  he  seeks  to 
make  his  principle  universal,  applying  it  gen- 
erally to  animate  existence.  Thus  he  passes 
from  the  implicit  time  of  acquisition  to  the  ex- 
plicit discovery  of  his  principle,  which  he 
finally  applies  in  many  ways. 

Here  it  may  be  noted  that  Darwin's  indi- 
vidual career  can  well  be  regarded  as  a  typical 
life ;  it  has  in  it  the  idea  and  the  movement  of 
universal  Biography,  though  following  its  par- 
ticular lines  and  character.  We  may  deem 
him  a  special  manifestation  of  the  universal 
man  in  a  very  unique  and  exalted  way:  in  a 
way  which  becomes  an  exemplar  of  all  com- 
pleted lives,  like  those  of  Lincoln  and  Goethe 
for  instance.  Not  a  broken  inperfect  life  con- 
sisting of  scattered  fragments  is  Darwin's; 
it  has  a  unity  and  a  process  which  connect  it 
with  the  All-Life,  yea  with  the  All-Self,  of 
which  it  is  an  incarnation  and  a  reflection. 

In  this  sense  it  will  be  worth  while  to  study 
Darwin's  biographical  stages  with  some  at- 
tention. . 


DARWIN'S  BIOGRAPHY.  433 

I.  APPRENTICESHIP.  We  are  struck  with 
the  difficulty  which  Darwin  had  in  finding  his 
true  bent,  in  discovering  what  he  had  to  do  in 
the  world.  If  we  look  into  his  immediate  an- 
cestral inheritance,  we  observe  a  line  of 
science  coming  down  to  him  through  his  fore- 
fathers. He  has  celebrated  the  mental  capac- 
ity of  his  father,  who  was  a  physician  and 
specially  gifted  with  keen  power  of  observa- 
tion, which  the  son  also  shows.  But  the  most 
interesting  as  well  as  famous  of  these  ancest- 
ors was  Dr,  Erasmus  Darwin  (1731-1802)  who 
was  a  poet  and  put  Nature  into  brilliant  Po- 
pian  verse  in  his  Botanic  Garden,  and  seems 
to  have  kept  up  his  poetizing  to  the  end  of 
his  days.  This  trait  he  did  not  transmit  to 
his  grandson,  who  says  (in  his  Autobiogra- 
phy) that  in  earlier  life  he  read  poetry  with 
pleasure,  and  then  continues:  "But  now  for 
many  years  T  cannot  endure  to  read  a  line  of 
poetry;  I  have  tried  lately  to  read  Shakes- 
peare, and  I  found  it  so  intolerably  dull  that 
it  nauseated  me.  I  have  also  lost  my  taste 
for  pictures  and  music.  My  mind  seems  to 
have  become  a  kind  of  machine  for  grinding 
general  laws  out  of  large  collections  of' f acts. " 
So  he  confesses  to  "the  atrophy  of  the  higher 
aesthetic  tastes  "  during  his  later  years.  Very 
different  in  this  regard  was  his  grandfather, 
who,  however,  on  another  line  reveals  a  men- 


432  THE  BIOCOSMOS— HISTORICAL. 

tal  turn  very  similar  to  that  of  his  grandson. 
For  Dr.  Erasmus  Darwin  wrote  a  work  called 
Zoonomia,  which  seeks  to  find  the  law  of  the 
animal  world,  and  in  one  passage  (cited  in  the 
Introduction  to  the  Origin  of  Species)  par- 
tially anticipates  Charles  Darwin's  doctrine 
in  regard  to  the  transmutation  of  the  species. 
The  grandfather  also  wrote  a  work  called 
Phytologia,  which  has  to  do  with  plants.  Or- 
ganic life  was  therefore  the  main  theme  and 
delight  of  this  ancestor,  wherein  he  is  like  his 
famous  descendent,  who,  however,  did  not 
poetize  it,  though  certainly  gifted  with  im- 
agination subordinate  to  science.  It  has  been 
noticed  that  children  often  skip  their  fathers, 
and  inherit  from  their  grandfathers  (a  point 
dwelt  on  by  Goethe,  by  the  way) ;  some  such 
fact  we  may  see  in  the  case  of  Darwin. 

The  first  decided  bent  which  Darwin  notes 
in  himself  as  a  boy  was  "my  taste  for. Nat- 
ural History "  and  also  the  passion  for  col- 
lecting specimens  of  various  objects,  "which 
was  very  strong. in' me  and  was  clearly  innate, 
as  none  of  my  sisters  or  brother  had  this 
taste. " 

When  nine  years  old  he  was  sent  to  a  "Dr. 
Butler's  great  school  in  Shrewsbury,"  where 
he  stayed  seven  years.  Here  is  the  result  in 
his  own  language :  ' '  Nothing  could  have  been 
worse  for  the  development  of  my  mind  than 


DARWIN'S  BIOGRAPHY.  433 

Dr.  Butler's  school,  as  it  was  strictly  classical, 
nothing  else  being  taught  but  a  little  ancient 
geography  and  history.  The  school  as  a  means 
of  education  was  to  me  simply  a  blank.  Dur- 
ing my  whole  life  I  have  been  singularly  in- 
capable of  mastering  any  language.  Especial 
attention  was  paid  to  verse-making,  and  this 
I  never  could  do  well."  Here  is  one  of  the 
first  guns  of  the  great  battle  between  Natural 
Science  and  the  Classics,  about  which  recent 
pedagogy  has  heard  so  much.  The  school  had 
no  study  of  Nature  for  developing  the  boy's 
innate  bent  which  showed  itself  in  the  fa^t  that 
"I  continued  collecting  minerals  with  much 
zeal  but  quite  unscientifically.  I  must  have 
gathered  insects  with  some  little  care,"  even 
before  the  age  of  ten  years.  Also  he  observed 
birds,  and  dabbled  in  chemistry.  Evidently 
the  boy  Darwin  is  making  his  own  curriculum 
of  education  in  strong  reaction  against  the 
transmitted  training  through  the  Classics. 
Once  he  was  publicly  rebuked  by  the  head- 
master "for  thus  wasting  time  on  such  useless 
subjects." 

What  is  to  be  done  with  the  trifling  lad,  for 
so  he  seems.  His  father  took  him  away  from 
the  classical  school,  where  he  "was  doing  no 
good,"  and  sent  him  to  Edinburgh  Univer- 
sity to  study  medicine,  evidently  that  he  might 
succeed  the  father  in  practice.  But  here  again 


434  THE  BIOCOSMOS— HISTORICAL. 

the  youth  kicked  out  of  the  transmitted  traces 
and  pursued  his  own  course  in  some  irregular 
studies  of  Natural  History.  He  loved  to  hunt 
and  to  sport  with  animals.  His  father  in  des- 
peration once  hurled  at  him  a  little  thunder- 
bolt: "You  care  for  nothing  but  shooting, 
dogs  and  rat-catching,  and  you  will  be  a  dis- 
grace to  yourself  and  all  the  family."  Evi- 
dently he  will  not  fit  into  any  paternal  model ; 
he  quits  Edinburgh  with  its  medicine  after 
two  years,  he  will  not  become  a  doctor  and  fol- 
low in  the  footsteps  of  his  sire.  What  to  do 
with  the  inadjustable  boy  must  have  been  the 
chief  problem  of  the  Darwin  household.  For- 
tunately he  pays  a  visit  to  his  uncle,  Mr.  Jo- 
siah  Wedgwood,  who  at  once  discerned  the 
bent  of  the  youth,  and  what  was  still  better,  be- 
came sympathetic  with  it.  Mark  this  uncle, 
for  he  speaks  the  pivotal  word  at  the  right 
moment,  and  thereby  renders  possible  the  fu- 
ture career  of  Charles  Darwin. 

The  well-intentioned  father,  striving  still  to 
keep  his  son  in  the  ready-cut  groove  of  a  trans- 
mitted vocation,  proposes  to  mould  him  into 
a  clergyman  of  the  Anglican  Church.  So  the 
young  man  betakes  him  to  the  University  of 
Cambridge  to  study  for  a  degree,  where  he  re- 
mains three  years  (1828-31).  But  it  is  the 
same  old  story.  He  had  to  brush  up  his  class- 
ics which  he  had  forgotten  with  delight,  and 


DARWIN'S  BIOGRAPHY.  435 

to  study  Mathematics  which  he  abominated; 
still  by  dint  of  a  good  memory  he  succeeded 
in  passing  the  examination.  Listen  again  to 
his  damnatory  judgment:  " During  the  three 
years  which  I  spent  at  Cambridge  my  time  was 
wasted,  as  far  as  the  academical  studies  were 
concerned,  as  completely  as  at  Edinburgh  and 
as  at  school."  But  there  was  the  same  strong 
undercurrent  of  his  true  bent  which  he  suc- 
ceeded in  gratifying.  He  heard  the  lectures 
on  botany  from  the  professor  (Henslow), 
4  k  though  I  did  not  study  it, ' '  and  he  went  with 
the  class  on  botanical  excursions,  "whickwere 
delightful."  Moreover  he  gave  rein  to  his 
passion  for  collecting  beetles.  Says  Darwin 
of  himself:  "I  am  surprised  what  an  indeli- 
ble impression  many  of  the  beetles  which  I 
caught  at  Cambridge  have  left  on  my  mind. 
I  can  remember  the  exact  appearance  of  cer- 
tain posts,  old  trees  and  banks  where  I  made 
a  good  capture."  But  while  he  remembered 
beetles,  he  totally  forgot  Homer  and  Virgil. 
What  was  the  whole  beautiful  classic  world 
compared  with  an  insect!  Here  is  a  sample 
of  the  love  of  Nature  which  is  hard  to  parallel : 
"One  day,  on  tearing  off  some  old  bark,  I  saw 
two  rare  beetles  and  seized  one  in  each  hand; 
then  I  saw  a  third  and  new  kind  which  I  could 
not  bear  to  lose,  so  that  I  popped  the  one  which 
I  held  in  my  right  hand  into  my  mouth."  An 


436  THE  BIOCOSMOS— HISTORICAL. 

heroic  act  surely  of  its  kind;  what  seasoned 
entomologist  would  dare  it  ?  But  the  prisoned 
bug  shed  an  acrid  juice  "  which  burnt  my 
tongue  so  that  I  was  forced  to  spit  it  out," 
and  so  it  was  lost,  says  Darwin  regretfully. 
This  certainly  shows  the  bent  of  the  youth,  as 
well  as  his  observing  power.  Through  the 
advice  of  Henslow  he  studied  geology  and 
went  with  its  professor,  Sedgwick,  on  a  geo- 
logical expedition  to  North  Wales.  Such  was 
his  real  education  at  Cambridge;  he  was  in 
training  to  be  the  High-Priest  of  Nature  and 
not  a  clergyman  of  the  Church  of  England; 
nor  could  he  be  brought  to  fit  into  any  of  the 
prescribed  vocations.  It  may  be  noted  that 
already  his  heart  is  set  upon  communing  with 
organic  life,  and  that  he  has  in  a  desultory 
way  tapped  its  three  main  divisions :  Plant- 
life  (botany),  Animal-life  (zoology),  Earth- 
life  (geology). 

It  is  manifest  that  Darwin's  education  up  to 
this  point  has  had  two  lines  in  it — the  open, 
regular,  authorized,  and  the  secret,  irregular, 
unauthorized.  He  has  been  training  himself, 
in  defiance  of  the  prescriptive  disciplines; 
though  he  has  not  rebelled,  he  has  quietly  let 
them  run  into  him  and  then  run  out.  Classics, 
Medicine,  Theology  had  all  tried  to  educate 
Charles  Darwin  and  could  not;  they  were  un- 
able to  call  out  of  its  germ  his  true  self,  his 


DARWIN'S  BIOGRAPHY.  437 

deepest  nature,  which,  however,  in  a  some- 
what clandestine  and  unordered  way  persisted 
in  asserting  itself.  Now  the  peculiar  scientific 
character  of  the  man,  at  present  acquired,  re- 
mained with  him  to  the  end  of  his  days.  He 
was  always  a  kind  of  amateur  in  science;  he 
had  not  the  professional  touch,  or  routine,  or 
knowledge,  though  in  his  way  he  showed  that 
he  knew  more  than  any  professor  of  Natural 
Science  in  the  world.  But  he  was  no  trained 
hiologist,  like  his  friend  Huxley;  no  trained 
botanist  like  his  friend  Hooker;  no  trained 
geologist  like  his  friend  Lyell.  Still  he  drew 
from  these  friends,  in  the  most  amiable  way, 
what  he  needed  of  theirs,  and  supplemented 
his  own  deficiencies ;  he  tapped  them  when  he 
wanted  them,  without  having  to  go  through 
their  professional  tread-mill,  with  its  crush- 
ing formalism  and  useless  lumber,  from  which 
he  had  re-acted  so  strongly  in  the  education 
of  his  youth.  For  Science  also  has  its  ritual, 
its  ceremonies,  and  especially  its  dogmas,  and 
can  become  even  more  dogmatic  than  The- 
ology. 

Darwin  then  had  no  established  training  for 
his  scientific  work  such  as  we  see  everywhere 
at  present  in  the  schools.  He  was  not  put 
through  the  prescribed  curriculum  by  the 
learned  professor  of  biology;  doubtless  he 
would  have  turned  against  that  too,  in  his 


438  THE  BIOCOSMOS— HISTORICAL. 

younger  days.  Very  glaring  are  some  of  his 
deficiencies  of  education  in  his  own  depart- 
ment. To  the  last  he  never  learned  to  draw 
and  he  could,  not  dissect  wth  any  skill ;  draw- 
ing and  dissecting  would  now  seem  the  most 
elementary  and  indispensable  branches  to  the 
scientist.  He  even  doubted  his  mastery  over 
the  mother-tongue,  and  hired  an  adept  to  cor- 
rect the  English  of  his  great  book  (Origin  of 
Species).  Now  we  hazard  the  opinion  that  it 
was  just  this  unconventional  education  which 
gave  free  scope  to  his  genius;  he  was  never 
case-hardened  by  the  University  Professor  of 
Science  in  transmitted  dogmas.  It  is  true  that 
at  Cambridge  he  was  deeply  influenced  by  two 
teachers  (Henslow  and  Sedgwick),  yet  he  did 
not  study  regularly  with  either  of  them,  but 
went  irregularly  botanizing  and  geologizing. 
To  the  end  he  was  a  free  ranger  in  Nature, 
whose  secret  he  must  catch  at  first  hand  in  her 
own  untrammeled  life,  and  not  in  the  lecture- 
room  of  the  Professor,  who,  however,  was  a 
very  useful  purveyor  of  knowledge  to  him.  It 
is  an  oft-repeated  phenomenon :  the  great  dis- 
coveries are  usually  not  made  by  the  trained 
scientist  at  the  University,  but  by  the  outsider, 
the  amateur,  who  possesses  the  inborn  love  of 
his  theme  with  the  genius  to  catch  its  deepest 
spirit. 
But,  returning  to  the  parental  household, 


DARWIN'S  BIOGRAPHY.  439 

we  may  still  hear  the  old  problem  even  after 
the  Cambridge  examination:  What  is  to  be 
done  with  this  wayward  young  man  who  evi- 
dently has  little  taste  for  the  clerical  profes- 
sion? Meanwhile  Professor  Henslow,  though 
a  cleric  himself,  has  fathomed  the  bent  of  his 
botanical  friend,  and  has  quickly  gone  to  work 
to  get  him  appointed  as  naturalist  to  the 
Beagle,  which  was  going  to  make  a  long  scien- 
tific voyage,  in  fact  round  the  world.  Papa 
Darwin  put  his  foot  down  against  such  a  wild, 
career-upsetting  scheme;  but  Uncle  Josiah 
Wedgwood  intercedes,  and  the  paternal  con- 
sent is  granted.  Speaking  briefly  of  this  piv- 
otal act,  Charles  Darwin  says:  "My  uncle 
sent  for  me  and  offered  to  drive  me  over  to 
Shrewsbury  (the  father's  residence)  and  talk 
with  my  father,  as  my  uncle  thought  it  would 
be  wise  in  me  to  accept  the  offer."  So  the 
mediator  appears  at  the  right  moment  for  de- 
termining the  career  of  the  great  scientist. 
Old  Homer  would  picture  it  a  divine  interfer- 
ence, perchance  of  Pallas  Athena,  at  a  nodal 
turn  of  destiny,  appearing  to  young  Tele- 
machus.  This  mediatorial  uncle  is  already  fa- 
mous in  the  family  for  his  mind  and  word. 
Darwin  goes  on  in  his  account:  "My  father 
always  maintained  that  he  (the  uncle)  was  one 
of  the  most  sensible  men  in  the  world,  and  he 
(the  father)  at  once  consented  in  the  kindest 


440  THE  BIOCOSMOS— HISTORICAL. 

manner. "  The  uncle  has  distinctly  glimpsed 
the  bent  and  possibly  the  genius  of  his 
nephew,  and  moreover  shows  strong  sympa- 
thy with  it,  being  eager  to  see  it  unfold  ac- 
cording to  its  own  law.  Kemove  the  lad  from 
his  father  who  does  not  understand  him;  get 
him  out  of  England  with  its  oppressive  for- 
mality and  traditionalism ;  send  him  off  to  sea 
where  he  will  be  turned  loose  upon  the  vast 
realm  of  Nature  in  which  he  can  revel  to  the 
full  of  his  spirit's  debauchery:  so  must  have 
felt  and  thought  Uncle  Josh,  who  thus  makes 
himself  the  turning-point  in  the  career  of  the 
greatest  modern  Englishman.  Henslow,  the 
warm  friend,  did  much,  very  much  for  thai: 
budding  talent,  and  finally  secured  the  offer 
of  just  the  right  position  for  its  further  devel- 
opment ;  still  all  this  had  been  in  vain  but  for 
the  mediation  of  the  uncle,  or  in  the  words  of 
Darwin:  "It  all  depended  on  so  small  a  cir- 
cumstance as  my  uncle  offering  to  drive  me 
thirty  miles  to  Shrewsbury/'  in  order  to  win 
to  the  scheme  the  did  doctor.  A  very  brief 
and  mild  memorandum  has  been  preserved  of 
Wedgwood's  opinion  in  the  case  which  is 
worth  citing:  "If  I  saw  Charles  now  ab- 
sorbed in  professional  duties  (as  clergyman), 
I  should  probably  think  it  would  not  be  ad- 
visable to  interrupt  them;  but  this  is  not,  and 
I  think,  will  not  be,  the  case  with  him.  His 


DARWIN'S  BIOGRAPHY.  44} 

present  pursuit  of  knowledge  is  in  the  same 
track  as  he  would  have  to  follow  in  the  expe- 
dition (Life  and  Letters  of  Darwin,  b'y  his 
son,  Vol.  1,  p.  173).  So  speaks  Uncle  Josiah 
the  words  of  wisdom  to  the  father,  which  bear 
of  themselves  a  deep  educational  import  for 
all  parents  and  children,  at  the  critical  con- 
junction of  choosing  a  vocation.  Thus  Charles 
Darwin,  after  many  an  obstruction,  turns 
down  the  open  road  toward  his  true  destiny. 
He  remarks  in  his  Autobiography:  "The" 
voyage  of  the  Beagle  has  been  by  far  the  most 
important  event  of  my  life,  and  has' deter- 
mined my  whole  career. ' '  He  was  a  volunteer 
naturalist,  receiving  no  salary  and  paying  his 
own  way  besides.  But  he  was  now  for  the 
first  time  a  free  man,  and  could  evolve  in  his 
own  way  on  his  own  lines;  no  wonder  that 
in  his  emancipation  he  evolved  Evolution 
itself. 

The  voyage  lasted  five  years  (1831-6),  start- 
ing when  he  was  twenty-two  years  old,  and 
thus  embracing  a  very  acquisitive  portion  of 
human  life.  Vast  were  the  stores  which  he 
brought  back,,  but  they  were  in  a  separated, 
more  or  less  chaotic  state.  Always  observing 
and  writing  down  in  his  note-book  we  find 
him,  as  if  determined  to  swallow  all  Nature 
in  his  quinquennial  banquet.  Amateur  indeed 
with  many  shortcomings,  but  a  true  lover,  he 


442  THE  BIOCOSMOS— HISTORICAL. 

feels  at  one  with  Mother  Earth  in  all  her 
forms,  and  harmonizes  with  her  spirit.  His 
letters  throb  with  happiness,  for  he  has  found 
his  vocation,  which  is  always  in  tune  with  his 
talent,  and  also  with  his  ambition.  No  more 
Greek  and  Latin,  no  more  medical  lectures,  no 
more  Theology,  no  more  Papa  on  this  free 
Ocean!  Still  Darwin  has  expressed  the 
strongest  affection  for  his  father,  who  con- 
tinued to  think  of  him  as  a  possible  curate 
after  he  had  came  back  a  new  man,  from  his 
regenerating  voyage.  The  old  Doctor  was  a 
good  obstetrician  for  infants,  but  totally  unfit 
for  an  adolescent,  especially  a  genius.  These 
five  years  have  also  their  culminating  point 
when  Darwin  saw  the  outlines  of  his  theory 
stamped  upon  the  huge  sphinx-face  of  Nature. 
This  vision  embodied  he  beheld  at  the  Gala- 
pagos Islands,  as  already  indicated. 

II.  THEORY  ELABORATED  (1837-59).  We 
have  now  reached  the  period  in  which  Darwin 
makes  explicit  that  evolutionary  germ  hither- 
to implicit  and  potential.  He  has  gradually 
to  formulate  that  which  he  has  lived  inwardly 
and  outwardly — has  lived  in  his  own  internal 
struggles  to  get  educated  and  in  his  external 
experience  with  free  Nature  during  his  oceanic 
voyage.  Evolution  as  yet  unborn  but  strug- 
gling for  birth  in  his  Apprenticeship,  is  next 
to  pass  into  Evolution  realized,  evolved  and 


DARWIN'S  BIOGRAPHY.  443 

expressed  in  speech.  This  period  lasts  from 
the  time  of  his  return,  when  he  starts  to  elab- 
orate his  acquisition,  till  the  publication  of  the 
Origin  of  Species  when  Evolution  leaps  forth 
into  the  light  of  Heaven  fully  evolved  and 
categorized,  ready  to  undergo  still  new  Evo- 
lutions. 

We  are  first  to  keep  in  mind  that  here  in 
particular  run  the  following  streams  of  Evo- 
lution, one  alongside  the  other,  or  perchance 
one  beneath  the  other.  First  is  the  objective 
or  physical  Evolution,  that  of  Nature,  which 
is  properly  the  theme.  Then  there  is  the  per- 
sonal Evolution,  very  important,  but  kept  un- 
derneath, though  it  is  really  the  working  prin- 
ciple which  drives  the  whole  machinery.  For 
it  is  Darwin's  Ego  which  is  re-creating  the 
creative  principle  of  Nature  and  giving  ade- 
quate utterance  to  the  same ;  the  evolver  he  is, 
who  while  evolving  Nature  is  himself  evolved. 
None  of  these  sides  can  be  left  out  in  a  com- 
plete statement  of  the  Darwinian  process ;  all 
belong  to  the  Biocosmos  which  has  to  present 
the  psychical  Evolution  of  the  individual 
evolver  as  he  evolves  physical  and  perchance 
universal  Evolution. 

From  the  foregoing  account  it  is  evident 
that  the  reader  must  keep  before  himself  no 
less  than  three  Evolutions:  (1)  the  original 
elemental  Evolution  of  Nature  herself  which 


444  THE  BIOCOSMOS— HISTORICAL. 

brings  forth  a  Darwin,  the  evolver;  (2)  the 
re-created  Evolution  generating  in  thought 
and  formulating  in  speech  Nature's  Evolution 
through  the  evolved  evolver;  (3)  the  evolver 's 
own  Evolution,  while  evolving  Nature's  Evo- 
lution; he  must  be  self-evolving  in  doing  his 
evolutionary  task.  Perhaps  the  reader  may 
seek  to  include  his  own  Ego  as  the  fourth 
stream  of  Evolution  intermingling  with  the 
three  other  streams  and  re-producing  them  in 
himself. 

For  more  than  twenty  years  after  his  re- 
turn Darwin  was  elaborating  the  vast  quantity 
of  materials  which  he  had  collected.  These 
pertained  especially  to  Biology  and  Geology. 
One  of  the  works  was  his  Journal  of  Re- 
searches during  the  voyage  of  the  Beagle, 
printed  first  in  1839  (second  edition  corrected 
and  enlarged  1845).  This  is  still  a  popular 
book,  being  written  in  a  familiar  style  and  al- 
ways manifesting  the  straightforward  interest 
of  the  lover  of  Nature.  It  shows  Darwin  eager- 
ly picking  up  every  particular  fact  without 
much  reflection  or  endeavor  to  put  in  order 
what  he  saw.  It  is  a  kind  of  diary  of  his  voy- 
age. Yet  growth  can  be  traced  in  it,  the  evolu- 
tion of  the  Naturalist  who  is  finally  to  evolve 
Evolution.  As  already  stated,  the  culmination 
of  the  book  is  reached  in  the  visit  to  the  Gala- 
pagos Islands,  which  took  place  toward  the 


DARWIN'S  BIOGRAPHY.  445 

close  of  the  fourth  year  of  the  voyage.  Hav- 
ing there  received  the  impress  of  his  idea 
from  Nature  herself,  he  could  go  home  and 
elaborate  it  into  reality  from  his  collected 
stores.  This,  however,  was  no  small  or  brief 
task. 

Two  years  and  more  after  his  return  he 
was  married.  It  is  not  out  of  place  to  remark 
that  he  in  his  marriage  makes  himself  a  new 
center  of  Evolution,  as  does  every  man  in  such 
a  relation.  Darwin  took  advantage  of  his 
position,  as  we  may  observe  from  allusions  in 
his  writings.  He  watched  the  unfolding  of  his 
children,  and  did  not  fail  to  note  down  what  he 
saw.  Says  his  biographer:  "At  the  end  of 
1839  his  eldest  child  was  born,  and  it  was  then 
that  he  began  his  observations  ultimately  pub- 
lished in  the  Expression  of  the  Emotions.  His 
book  on  this  subject  and  the  short  paper  pub- 
lished in  Mind,  show  how  closely  he  observed 
his  child. "  Eight  children  were  born  to  him 
— surely  a  great  opportunity  for  the  study  of 
biological  Evolution,  as  well  as  for  the  exer- 
cise of  parental  love  and  anxiety,  both  of 
which  Darwin  showed  in  full  measure.  More- 
over he  quit  smoky  denatured  London,  and 
moved  to  the  country  where  he  lived  the  rest 
of  his  life  in  free,  open  contact  with  Nature. 
Here  he  could  experiment  with  plants  and  ani- 
mals, wild  and  domestic ;  the  environing  coun- 


446  THE  BIOCOSMOS— HISTORICAL. 

try  became  his  laboratory  in  which  he  made 
Life  reproduce  and  reveal  its  processes,  con- 
firming his  views.  Still  he  did  not  wholly  ab- 
jure the  society  of  his  scientific  friends  whom 
he  could  meet  in  his  little  trips  to  London, 
and  who  often  went  to  his  rural  residence, 
named  Down,  to  see  the  great  naturalist. 

But  the  chief  fact  of  this  second  period  of 
Darwin 's  career  is  suggested  in  the  following 
statement :  "In  July,  1837,  I  opened  my  first 
note-book  for  facts  in  relation  to  the  Origin 
of  Species,  about  which  I  had  long  reflected 
and  never  ceased  working  for  the  next  twenty 
years."  Darwin  himself  thus  marks  off  the 
foregoing  period  through  which  was  spun  the 
one  thread  uniting  all  his  diversified  activi- 
ties :  his  theory  of  Evolution.  To  be  sure,  he 
says  he  had  been  thinking  about  it  for  a  long 
time,  especially  during  his  voyage;  but  it 
probably  lurked  as  a  hidden  impulse  farther 
back  in  his  youthful  love  of  Nature  which 
dominated  him  from  childhood.  But  now  he 
becomes  conscious  of  his  life's  chief  pursuit; 
he  must  uncover  the  origin  of  species.  More- 
over when  he  read  Malthus  fifteen  months 
later  (1838)  he  came  upon  his  basic  principle, 
Natural  Selection. 

At  last  in  November,  1859,  his  pivotal  book, 
yea  the  pivotal  book  of  the  century  perhaps 
more  than  any  other,  was  published  with  mi- 


DARWIN'S  BIOGRAPHY.  447 

merous  accompanying  circumstances  of  in- 
terest, all  of  which  cannot  here  be  recounted. 
It  was  an  abstract  of  a  much  larger  work,  in 
fact  the  abstract  of  an  abstract.  This  bigger 
book  never  came  out,  though  much  of  its  con- 
tents probably  went  over  into  the  author's 
later  works.  The  first  edition  was  taken  in  a 
day  (1250  copies) ;  and  so  it  has  gone  on  sell- 
ing all  over  the  world  in  many  languages  from 
that  time  to  this.  The  Age  took  it  at  once  as 
the  most  adequate  expression  of  its  very  soul ; 
everybody  had  to  read  it  who  wished  to  hear 
the  voice  of  the  nineteenth  century  in  its  clear- 
est and  most  concentrated  utterance.  Another 
indication  of  its  striking  adjustment  to  the 
time  is  the  fact  that  a  contemporary  scientist, 
Mr.  Alfred  K.  Wallace,  had  elaborated  the 
same  doctrine  of  the  transmutation  of  the  spe- 
cies, written  it  out  in  an  essay  which  he  sent 
in  the  summer  of  1858  to  Darwin,  who  says  of 
it:  "This  essay  contained  exactly  the  same 
theory  as  mine. ' '  Still  Darwin  himself  denied 
that  "the  subject  was  in  the  air,"  or  that  the 
world  was  ready  for  it.  But  not  only  ready, 
the  Soul  of  the  Age  was  calling  for  it,  being 
instinctively  evolutionary  and  striving  for 
some  utterance.  Darwin  spake  the  right  word 
at  the  right  moment ;  he  possessed  the  genius 
to  make  himself  the  voice  of  the  universal 
Spirit  to  the  eager  people — a  truly  mediate- 


448  THE  BIOC08M08— HISTORICAL. 

rial  function  of  the  Great  Man,  as  already  in- 
dicated. 

In  this  way  concludes  the  second  period  of 
his  Biography,  with  a  prodigious  blare  of  the 
triumphal  trumpet  over  the  whole  civilized 
world.  He  has  now  made  explicit  his  thought 
so  long  implicit,  has  realized  his  Idea,  brooded 
over  for  more  than  twenty  years,  in  one  colos- 
sal manifestation.  What  next? 

III.  EVOLUTION  MADE  UNIVERSAL.  That  is, 
Darwin  proceeds  during  the  rest  of  his  life — 
the  concluding  period — to  apply  his  theory  to 
all  Nature,  not  leaving  out  wholly  the  psy- 
chical side  (.1859-82).  This  period  is  about  as 
long  as  the  second.  Having  made  explicit  his 
one  central  principle,  he  goes  forward  to  uni- 
versalize it,  showing  its  validity  as  well  as  its 
extent  in  a  number  of  departments  of  science. 

We  can  see  that  the  implicit  germ  of  his 
first  period  had  now  come  to  complete  fruit- 
agej  and  his  life  is  rounded  out.  The  vast 
disorganized,  scattered  experiences  of  his  voy- 
age round  the  world  he  orders  after  a  single 
fundamental  thought  which  he  has  evolved  out 
of  the  mass,  which  is  to  be  ordered.  A  world 
of  facts  lie  gathers  one  by  one  in  his  world- 
trip,  and  crams  them  into  his  brain,  belabor- 
ing them  till  he  finds  the  principle  by  which 
they  are  to  be  organized,  and  then  he  proceeds 
in  his  last  period  to  organize  them  after  this 


DARWIN'S  BIOGRAPHY.  449 

principle.  To  Darwin  the  outer,  separate  uni- 
verse of  Nature  becomes  an  inner  harmonious 
unified  universe  through  Evolution  by  Nat- 
ural Selection,  which  is  the  central  mediating 
principle.  And  just  that  is  also  the  unity  of 
his  life  evolving  through  its  three  periods. 
He  mediated  himself  in  his  own  crude  imme- 
diate state  with  his  universal  Self;  and  so 
completely  did  he  live  this  process  that  he  was 
the  mediator  in  the  sphere  of  Nature  for  his 
age. 

Thus  he  goes  back  to  his  voyage  externally, 
and  makes  the  inner  circumnavigation^  of  Na- 
ture, avoiding  Classics,  Medicine  and  Theol- 
ogy to  the  last.  We  may  observe  him  branch- 
ing from  his  central  principle  in  his  next  ex- 
tensive work,  Variation  of  Animals  and 
Plants  Under  Domestication.  This  contains 
his  theory  of  Pangenesis,  which  "implies  that 
every  separate  part  of  the  whole  organization 
reproduces  itself"  through  the  so-called  gem- 
mules.  Next  we  may  place  The  Descent  of  Man 
(1871),  in  which  the  transmutation  of  the  spe- 
cies is  applied  to  the  human  being — which  ap- 
plication the  author  had  avoided  in  the  Origin 
of  Species.  This  is,  of  course,  the  most  im- 
portant application  and  has  given  to  Darwin- 
ism its  greatest  fame,  as  it  affirms  that  man 
had  come  through  "a  pithecoid  ancestor." 
But  we  shall  have  to  forego  any  special  des- 
ignation of  the  rest  of  his  works. 


450  THE  BIOCOSMOS— HISTORICAL. 

Noteworthy  is  the  fact  that  in  the  last  years 
of  his  life  he  devoted  his  books  chiefly  to 
plants.  His  was  primarily  a  flower-soul,  he 
was  a  botanist  more  than  geologist  or  zoolo- 
gist. This  was  an. original  bent  lying  in  his 
character,  but  doubtless  unfolded  by  Profes- 
sor Henslow,  his  dearest  friend,  educator  and 
then  helper.  Indeed  Nature  herself  was  first 
of  all  a  plant,  and  Darwin  followed  her.  His 
earliest  love  was  for  flowers,  and  later  he  went 
to  the  country  from  flowerless  London,  living 
in  his  Paradise  or  floral  world,  which  was  his 
garden  at  Down  with  its  insects  and  birds. 
And  on  his  voyage  he  seems  to  show  the 
greater  inclination  for  Plant-life,  though  he 
keeps  also  in  view  Animal-life  as  well  as 
Earth-life. 

Such,  as  we  look  at  it,  is  the  movement  of 
the  personal  biography  of  Darwin,  which  is  in 
itself  psychical,  and  unfolds  after  its  own 
law,  though  its  content  is  the  evolution  of  or- 
ganic existence.  A  remarkably  integral  life 
was  his,  fully  rounded  out,  representing  the 
finished  human  career,  whose  process  is  in- 
deed a  manifestation  of  the  process  of  the  All- 
Self,  or  of  the  Great  Entirety.  Typical  we 
may  deem  Darwin's  individual  Biography,  re- 
flecting the  universal  Biography  of  all  men  at 
their  best  and  its  process,  though  each  man 
has  and  must  have  his  own  special  sphere  of 


DARWIN'S  BIOGRAPHY.  45  j[ 

activity,  which  has  also  its  special  events.  We 
may  again  emphasize  that  written  Biography 
must  be  elevated  out  of  its  present  chaos  by 
bringing  to  light  this  universal  process  in 
each  human  career,  as  well  as  its  particular 
occurrences. 

Darwin  lies  beside  Newton  in  Westminster 
Abbey;  thus  the  mighty  Dioscuri  of  Nature's 
Eevelation  are  twinned  in  their  mortality  as  in 
their  immortality. 


452  THE  BIOCOSMOS— HISTORICAL. 


II.  BEFOKE  DAKWIN   AND   AFTER. 

Having  evolved  the  one  central  man  who 
has  practically  evolved  Evolution,  we  may 
trace  briefly  the  line  of  predecessors  into  him, 
and  the  line  of  successors  out  of  him.  The 
Hero  of  the  Biocosmos,  in  so  far  as  this  has 
yet  unfolded,  is  Darwin,  who  possessed  the 
power  of  conquering  his  age  with  his  thought, 
and  stamping  upon  it  his  fundamental  cate- 
gory. His  was  the  regnant  biological  Ego — 
that  designates  his  supremacy  as  well  as  his 
limit.  For  he  was  not  the  universal  genius, 
even  in  the  realm  of  Nature ;  biocosmical  was 
his  field,  rather  confinedly  fenced  off  from 
every  other  domain  of  knowledge.  He  has 
himself  marked  down  his  own  spiritual 
bounds  with  candor  and  modesty.  But  within 
his  kingdom  he  is  the  monarch. 

Still  the  science  whidi  he  stands  for,  that  of 
Evolution,  is  itself  an  Evolution,  and  has  a 
number  of  ascending  stages  each  of  which  is 
usually  represented  by  an  important  person, 
who  has  his  own  biography  or  individual  Evo- 
lution. All  of  these  taken  together  in  succes- 
sion will  show  the  history  of  the  science  afore- 
said. That  is,  we  are  to  see  Evolution  itself 
evolving  up  to  the  point  at  which  it  becomes 
aware  of  itself  and  formulates  itself  as  a 


BEFORE  DARWIN  AND  AFTER.  453 

part  of  its  own  total  science.  And  we  may 
add  that  Evolution  does  not  stop  with  Darwin 
but  takes  a  fresh  start.  If  his  own  principle 
be  applied  to  himself,  he  too  must  evolve  still 
further.  And  this  is  what  has  happened. 

The  considerable  details  of  biological  his- 
tory we  cannot  here  enter  upon;  only  the 
mountain  peaks  of  the  science  we  shall  at? 
tempt  to  bring  into  one  view,  that  our  reader 
may  catch  a  glimpse  of  the  complete  Biocos- 
mos,  as  we  see  it. 

I.  AKISTOTLE.  We  shall  begin  with  an  Ego 
which  was  not  merely  biological  but  was  uni- 
versal, elaborating  not  the  science  of  Life 
alone,  but  all  science^  yea  the  science  of  the 
All.  Doubtless  of  the  great  men  who  have 
ever  lived,  Aristotle  best  deserves  the  title  of 
Genius  Universal.  In  his  works  is  grasped 
and  formulated  the  universe  with  its  triune 
process  of  God,  Nature,  and  Man.  This  he 
did  of  course  in  his  way,  which  is  that  of  the 
Thinker,  the  Philosopher.  Upon  his  thought 
is  stamped  every  phase'  or  part  of  the  great 
All  with  equal  fullness  and  favor.  In  him 
the  ideal  and  the  real  are  equally  at  home 
and  harmonious;  his  mind  conjoins  and  me- 
diates in  one  process  the  Particular  and  the 
Universal.  But  that  which,  we  may  especially 
celebrate  here  is  that  he  united  the  metaphy- 
sician and  the  scientist  in  one  complete  per- 


454  THE  BIOCOSMOS— HISTORICAL. 

sonality  with  both  sides  present  and  co-oper- 
ant  in  mutual  sympathy  and  appreciation. 
•After  him  these  two  sides  separated  and 
flowed  down  time  in  diverse  and  often  antag- 
onistic streams.  During  the  last  hundred 
years  (say  the  nineteenth  century)  Philosophy 
and  Science  have  been  at  daggers '  points  for 
the  most  part.  At  first  Philosophy  seemed  to 
hold  its  own  (in  Schelling,  Hegel,  and  we 
should  add,  Oken,  the  much  belabored  at  pres- 
ent). Then  Science  flung  its  foe  to  the 
ground,  yea  down  into  Inferno  itself,  as  was 
thought.  Still  Science  has  found  itself  un- 
able to  do  without  its  counterpart,  and  is 
becoming  more  speculative  than  Philosophy 
(a  fact  which  has  been  repeatedly  noted  in 
the  preceding  exposition).  The  two  are 
really  approaching  each  other,  even  through 
mutual  execration. 

It  would  seem,  then,  that  the  time  is  march- 
ing toward  a  new  Aristotle  who  will  again  be 
metaphysician  and  physicist  in  harmonious 
proportion,  who  wifl  reunite  in  himself  the 
two  halves  of  the  universe  in  a  new  symmet- 
rical construction.  It  may  well  be  questioned 
if  Philosophy,  in  its  present  form,  can  ac- 
complish this  great  coming  act  of  reconcili- 
ation; apparently  it  has  evolved  to  its  limit, 
and  is  impotent  to  proceed  further  with  the 
evolution  of  thought.  A  new  discipline  must 


BEFORE  DARWIN  AND  AFTER.  455 

take  its  place?  preserving  all  its  treasures  won, 
which  are  many,  including  just  this  Aristotle. 
But  let  it  be  also  emphasized  that  Science  is 
not  the  new  discipline,  for  Science  too  has 
shown  its  limitation,  and  indeed  is  calling  for 
something  more  universal  than  itself.  Such  a 
dawning  discipline  of  thought  which  can  me- 
diate the  fierce  dualism  between  Science  and 
Philosophy  (and  we  may  include  Eeligion)  is 
the  new  Psychology. 

It  is  evident,  however,  that  Aristotle,  who 
is  placed  here  at  the  beginning,  may  also  be 
regarded  as  a  kind  of  ideal  end  toward  which 
both  Science  and  Philosophy  are  striving. 
Thus  he  is  himself  an  illustration  of  his  own 
doctrine,  that  the  end  lies  in  the  beginning,  is 
what  essentially  determines  the  same,  espe- 
cially in  the  sphere  of  Nature,  and  often  re- 
turns to  the  same,  as  may  be  noted  in  Gener- 
ation. 

The  first  fact  regarding  Aristotle  in  the 
present  connection  is  that  he  had  already  the 
general  conception  of  Evolution.  Again  and 
again  he  speaks  of  the  ascent  of  Nature 
through  various  stages  from  lowest  to  high- 
est. To  be  sure,  this  conception  was  not 
wrought  out  by  him  to  completion;  it  was  a 
germinal  idea  for  whose  realization  thousands 
of  years  were  required.  Still  he  gave  utter- 
ance to  the  idea. 


456  THE  BIOCOSMOS— HISTORICAL. 

His  scientific  activity  embraced  the  whole 
field  of  Biology,  though  his  work  on  Plants 
has  been  lost.  A  good  deal  of  his  Zoology 
survives,  though  in  a  fragmentary  way.  He 
paid  much  attention  to  embryology  which  is 
usually  deemed  a  very  modern  science;  day 
by  day  he  observed  the  evolving  chick  in  the 
hen's  egg,  and  had  his  eye  generally  o*n  the 
development  of  animal-life.  Thus  he  pre- 
enacted  an  important  phase  of  the  modern 
movement  toward  Evolution,  for  the  embry- 
ological  researches  of  Von  Baer  (first  part 
published  in  1828)  are  decidedly  evolutionary 
before  Darwin.  But  Aristotle  had  already 
opened  the  same  field. 

He  also  paid  especial  attention  to  the  struc- 
ture and  functions  of  animals,  and  he  sought 
to  classify  them  in  larger  and  smaller  divis- 
ions according  to  their  kinship.  An  extensive 
and  close  observation  of  animals  he  shows, 
and  some  of  his  statements  of  fact  have  been 
verified  quite  recently  by  science.  Thus  on 
many  sides  he  radiates  germinal  thoughts 
which  require  ages  to  unfold  and  ripen. 

It  is  evident  that  he  sees  the  pivotal  fact 
of  organic  Life  to  be  Generation,  a  conception 
which  the  botany  and  the  zoology  of  today  are 
beginning  to  develop  fully.  Says  he:  " First 
study  the  facts  or  appearances  of  animals; 
then  reach  down  to  their  causes;  but  finally 


BEFORE  DARWIN  AND  AFTER.  457 

consider  their  Generation."  The  last  has  in- 
deed the  stress;  it  treats  of  the  organic  indi- 
vidual in  its  highest  function,  that  of  repro- 
ducing its  own  separate  individuation,  and 
thus  of  continuing  itself  beyond  its  own  lim- 
ited existence.  This  touches  the  doctrine  of 
germinal  continuity  upon  which  modern  biol- 
ogy is  laboring  with  so  much  zeal  and  indus- 
try. Aristotle  glimpsed  the  deep  significance 
of  the  generative  process  of  Life,  and  makes 
upon  it  many  subtle  observations  scattered 
through  his  scattered  treatises. 

But  we  recur  to  the  thought  that  Aristotle 
was  not  confined  to  biology  or  to  any  single 
department  of  Nature  or  of  Mind.  He  was 
not  the  modern  specialist  in  one  branch  of 
science;  he  knew  all  its  branches,  and  would 
not  only  co-ordinate  them  with  one  another 
but  also  with  the  universe  itself.  From  him 
could  spring  the  true  university,  based  upon 
an  universal  world-view  which  ordered  all  the 
variety  of  special  knowledge.  His  school  con- 
tinued his  work  for  hundreds  of  years  under 
its  so-called  scholarchs.  So  with  the  coming 
of  the  new  Aristotle  we  may  'also  think  of  the 
coming  of  the  new  University  which  will  be 
truly  universal  and  be  organized  and  unified 
by  the  science  universal. 

Another  point  in  Aristotle's  conception  of 
Nature  should  not  be  omitted.  In  all  organic 


458  THE  BIOCOSMOS— HISTORICAL. 

Life,  plant  as  well  as  animal,  he  sees  the  work- 
ing of  the  Soul  (Psyche).  The  psychical  ele- 
ment exists  in  conjunction  with  the  physical. 
The  result  is  that  he  regards  all  Life,  and  in- 
deed all  Nature  as  having  within  it  an  End 
to  which  it  is  moving,  and  which  it  seeks  to 
realize.  Nature  is,  accordingly,  teleological 
in  Aristotle,  the  realm  of  an  inner  propulsion 
toward  an  end — it  is  not  complete  in  itself, 
but  ultimately  a  part  of  a  greater  Whole. 
Herein  the  universal  thinker  again  appears 
with  his  thought  of  the  Universe,  in  which 
Nature  has  its  place  and  character. 

II.  FROM  ARISTOTLE  TO  DAKWIN.  We  put 
together  in  this  caption  the  greatest  ancient 
and  the  greatest  modern  biologist  for  the  pur- 
pose of  comparing  and  contrasting  them.  As 
regards  their  individual  lives,  both  show  that 
common  psychical  process  which  is  manifested 
in  every  complete  career.  Each  has  his  time 
of  Apprenticeship,  of  Elaboration  of  mater- 
ials gained,  and  finally  of  Realization  of  his 
idea,  with  its  application  to  special  domains 
of  knowledge.  (For  a  brief  account  of  Aris- 
totle's Life  from  this  point  of  view,  see  our 
Ancient  European  Philosophy,  p.  348,  etc.. 
For  Darwin's  Life,  see  preceding  section  of 
this  book.) 

The  first  fact  here  to  be  emphasized  about 
Aristotle  is  his  encyclopedic  faculty  of  acqui- 


BEFORE  DARWIN  AND  AFTER.  459 

sition;  every  sort  of  knowledge  he  seems  to 
have  appropriated  with  an  equal  relish;  he 
swallowed  all  creation  in  his  mind,  omnivor- 
ous to  know.  On  the  other  hand  we  have  to 
note  how  limited,  how  dainty  was  Darwin's 
appetite  for  intellectual  acquisition;  Classics, 
Mathematics,  Medicine,  Theology,  Art  and 
Poetry  would  not  stay  on  his  mental  stomach. 
Nature  was  his  domain,  yet  only  one  nook  of 
it  he  passionately  loved,  the  biological.  The 
Englishman  was  a  specialist  by  birth,  and 
therein  again  belonged  to  his  age,  which  is 
so  devoted  to  specialization.  But  the  Greek 
was  all-embracing,  all-ordering,  all-knowing 
in  aspiration;  he  was  born  universal  and  an 
universalizer.  Individual  he  indeed  was  and 
finite,  yet  he  more  than  any  other  recorded 
mortal  bore  this  impress  of  the  Universe  it- 
self in  its  highest  process.  The  Pampsy- 
chosis  would  seem  to  have  stamped  him  with 
its  own  image. 

The  result  was  that  Darwin  became  an  ag- 
nostic in  reference  to  all  spheres  of  knowledge 
lying  outside  of  his  relatively  limited  horizon. 
Still  he  spoke  the  epoch-making  word  of  Evo- 
lution within  his  province,  where  it  was  picked 
up  by  others  and  borne  far  and  wide,  and  is 
still  in  the  process  of  dissemination.  Nor 
should  we  forget  that  Aristotle  was  a  chief 
factor  for  centuries  in  molding  both  the  Euro- 


460  THE  BIOCOSMOS— HISTORICAL. 

pean  and  Oriental  mind,  and  still  today  he  is 
potent  in  influence.  The  man  of  the  present, 
seeking  universality  as  a  counterpoise  and 
corrective  of  the  desperate  particularism  of 
the  time,  cannot  do  better  than  take  some  les- 
sons from  old  Greek  Aristotle,  the  first  true 
organizer  of  the  thought  of  all  things  and  of 
the  All  itself. 

In  the  long  interval  between  Aristotle  and 
Darwin  are  many  noteworthy  biologists  with 
important  contributions.  A  history  of  them 
shows  a  continuous  undercurrent  of  evolution 
toward  Evolution  as  a  formulated  doctrine. 
Perhaps  the  most  important  and  typical  of 
the  discoveries  in  the  present  field  was  the 
circulation  of  the  blood  by  Harvey.  In  the 
sphere  of  Natural  History  the  name  of  Linn- 
aeus stands  first  as  the  supreme  orderer  of 
plants  and  animals.  He  is  the  author  of  the 
so-called  binomial  nomenclature  which  gives 
a  name  to  every  natural  object  in  two  words, 
usually  Latin,  expressing  the  genus  by  a  noun 
and  the  species  by  an  adjective  term.  For 
instance^  the  common  dog  is  called  Canis  fa- 
miliaris,  while  the  wolf,  which  is  also  a  dog,  is 
called  Canis  lupus.  Minerals  were  likewise 
designated  in  this  way  as  well  as  plants  and 
animals.  Thus  the  vast  diversity  of  Nature 
gets  labeled  and  classified.  This  must  be 
deemed  a  great  act  which  endowed  science 


BEFORE  DARWIN  AND  AFTER.  461 

with  a  definite  speech  for  the  first  time,  where- 
by scientists  were  enabled  to  talk  to  one  an- 
other intelligently  through  distance  and  dura- 
tion. The  result  is  that  the  whole  scientific 
world  employs  the  binomial  nomenclature  for 
inter-communication;  one  hears  it  in  Japan 
and  in  the  Orient, — a  sort  of  universal  lan- 
guage of  science.  A  great  trainer  it  is  also  for 
organizing  thought ;  it  does  not  leave  the  indi- 
vidual object  isolated,  but  puts  the  same  under 
it$  species  which  again  is  subsumed  under  the 
genus.  The  implication  is  that  the  process  is 
to  continue  till  all  Nature  is  ordered  through 
its  various  stages;  indeed  even  Nature  must 
at  last  be  subsumed  under  what  is  higher, 
under  the  summum  genus.  So  the  binomial 
nomenclature  of  the  great  Swedish  botanist 
we  may  well  deem  a  genetic  thought,  which  is 
still  productive  in  science. 

The  microscope  is  the  source  of  the  most 
important  discoveries  in  biological  science. 
There  is  a  dispute  about  the  time  and  the  in- 
ventor of  this  instrument.  But  the  application 
of  it  belongs  to  the  seventeenth  century  al- 
most cotemporaneously  in  England,  Italy  and 
Holland.  Perhaps  of  these  early  microscop- 
ists  the  most  credit  is  due  to  Leeuwenhoek, 
who  first  observed  the  connection  between  the 
veins  and  arteries  in  the  capillaries,  though 
this  had  been  conjectured  before  him  by  Har- 


462  T'HE  BIOCOSMOS— HISTORICAL. 

vey.  But  the  triumph  of  the  microscope  came 
two  centuries  later  in  the  revelation  of  the 
cell  as  the  organic  unit  of  Life.  It  is  true  that 
the  cell  had  been  recognized,  described  and 
even  pictured  by  the  observers  of  the  seven- 
teenth century.  In  fact  the  ancients  had  sup- 
posed some  such  structural  unit  in  both  plants 
and  animals ;  the  same  statement  had  been  re- 
peatedly made  as  a  conjecture.  But  the 
ocular  proof  of  the  cell-theory  as  well  as  the 
formulation  of  it  are  assigned  to  the  year  1838 
in  the  work  of  two  German  co-laborers,  Schlei- 
den  and  Schwan,  the  one  a  botanist,  the  other 
an  anatomist.  The  latter  declares  that ' l  there 
exists  one  principle  for  the  formation  of  or- 
ganisms and  that  principle  is  the  cell,"  sup- 
porting the  proposition  by  direct  observation. 
Then  came  the  discovery  of  protoplasm  (by 
Dujardin)  as  the  common  ultimate  material 
in  plants  and  animals.  The  leading  statement 
here  is  that  of  Schulze  (1861)  that  a  cell  is  a 
globule  of  protoplasm  surrounding  a  nucleus. 
It  should  be  noted  that  Darwin's  pivotal  book, 
Origin  of  the  Species,  had  appeared  two  years 
before,  yet  it  hardly  participates  in  this  great 
movement  of  microscopic  biology. 

But  no  sooner  has  the  cell  concentrated  the 
attention  of  biologists  than  the  question  opens 
concerning  its  function,  its  physiological  char- 
acter. If  it  contains  the  unitary  process  of  all 


BEFORE  DARWIN  AND  AFTER.      4(53 

Life,  vegetal  and  animal,  it  must  be  the  seat 
of  health  and  disease.  The  Cellular  Pathol- 
ogy (1858)  of  Virchow  was  in  this  field  epoch- 
making.  But  when  it  began  to  be  conceived 
that  hereditary  qualities  were  transmitted 
from  generation  to  generation  through  the 
cell,  biology  took  a  new  turn,  and  entered  upon 
the  investigations  in  which  it  is  at  present 
chiefly  engaged.  The  transmission  of  physi- 
cal qualities  from  ancestors  is  the  theme  about 
which  our  time  is  most  anxious;  the  implica- 
tion is  that  with  physical  are  transmitted  psy- 
chical qualities.  Evolution  being  granted,  we 
wish  to  catch  it  in  the  very  act,  to  find  its 
secret  process.  This  work  has  been  going  on 
since  the  Darwinian  deed,  and  it  we  must 
scan  briefly. 

III.  AFTER  DARWIN. — If  we  inspect  the  two 
terms  which  compose  the  title  to  the  Origin 
of  Species,  we  shall  find  that  origin  has  a 
deeper  and  stronger  stress  than  species.  Keal- 
ly  Darwin's  book  is  a  discussion  of  organic 
generation,  and  turns  upon  the  genesis  of  the 
individual  organism.  This  is  what  is  brought 
decidedly  into  the  foreground  in  the  trend 
of  biology  after  Darwin.  What  is  the  method 
of  the  propagation  of  Life?  Such  a  question 
goes  back  in  its  farthest  reach  to  the  funda- 
mental act  of  Nature,  namely  its  individu- 
ation.  For  Nature  does  its  work  through  ere- 


'464  THE  BIOCOSM08— HISTORICAL. 

ating  individuals,  organically  and  inorgani- 
cally; this  must  be  deemed  its  primordial 
trait.  Darwin,  of  course,  does  not  call  up 
such  remote  outlooks,  he  rather  shuns  them, 
while  Aristotle  for  instance,  as  philosopher, 
seeks  them  as  indicating  Nature's  universal 
relation,  that  is,  its  relation  to  the  Universe. 
The  Darwinian  round  may  be  briefly  con- 
ceived as  follows:  (1)  The  given  variation  of 
organisms;  this  -on  the  whole  is  taken  for 
granted  by  Darwin  as  his  starting  point.  To 
be  sure  there  is  implied  even  here  that  such 
variation  takes  place  through  birth;  every 
born  individual  is  different  from  all  others. 

(2)  The  struggle  for  existence  between  these 
varying  individuals  of  the  same  species;  the 
fittest  survive  in  the  battle  for  food  primarily. 

(3)  The  propagation  of  the  fittest  organism 
after  getting  rid  of  the  unfit.    But  the  progeny 
of  this  fittest  organism  is  again  composed  of 
the  fit  and  the  unfit,  and  so  the  struggle  be- 
gins  over  again,   or  rather  it  never  stops. 
Evidently  the  generative  act  of  the  individual 
which  keeps  reproducing  variation  with  its 
two  main  classes,  the  fit  and  the  unfit,  is  the 
pivotal  act  of  the  whole  process,  upon  which 
many  problems  turn.     Can  generation  be  so 
controlled  that  it  will  lessen  or  eliminate  the 
unfit?    In  the  lower  organisms,  the  plant  and 
animal,  this  has  long  been  done  by  the  im- 


BEFORE  DARWIN  AND  AFTER.      4(55 

provement  of  the  breed,  through  a  remorseless 
weeding-out  of  the  unfit.  But  when  we  rise 
to  man,  the  problem  becomes  complicated  with 
other  considerings.  Still  the  new  science  (Eu- 
genics) is  grappling  bravely  with  the  human 
or  social  side  of  the  question. 

The  scientist  after  Darwin  who  has  most 
directly  pushed  into  the  heart  of  the  subject 
is  the  German,  Weismann.  He  illustrated  and 
enforced  the  distinction  between  the  germ-cell 
and  the  body-cell,  the  former  is  transmitted, 
the  latter  is  no.t.  Accordingly  all  heredity 
comes  down  through  the  germ-cell  or  germ- 
plasma  ;  necessarily  this  means  that  there  has 
been  a  continuous  cellular  stream  through  all 
organic  existence  from  the  original  fountain 
of  Life,  which  is  tapped  and  flows  forth  into 
these  germ-cells,  eternal,  immortal,  till  the 
Life  of  the  planet  ceases.  On  the  other  hand 
the  body-cells  are  purely  individual,  are  not 
inherited.  As  an  inference  from  this  proposi- 
tion, Weismann  declares  that  there  is  no  in- 
heritance of  acquired  characters.  Against 
him  on  this  point  rose  a  good  deal  of  opposi- 
tion headed  by  Herbert  Spencer,  who  stoutly 
maintained  that  traits  won  by  the  individual 
for  the  first  time  have  been  often  transmitted 
to  his  posterity.  The  discussion  revived  the 
work  of  the  almost  forgotten  Lamarck  who 
had  also  propounded  a  theory  of  Evolution  at' 


466  THE  BIOCOSMOS— HISTORICAL. 

the  beginning  of  the  century,  in  which  theory 
the  transmutation  of  the  species  was  upheld. 
He  sought  to  account  for  variation  by  the  use 
and  disuse  of  organs  followed  up  by  heredity 
in  the  offspring.  Thus  Lamarck  reached  back 
of  Darwin  in  trying  to  account  for  variation, 
which  the  latter  assumed.  Hence  after  Dar- 
win arose  the  new  school  of  biologists  called 
the  neo-Lamarckian,  which  has  representa- 
tives in  Europe  and  America. 

Another  significant  addition  to  post-Dar- 
winian Evolution  is  the  doctrine  of  De  Vries, 
that  new  species  often  appear  suddenly,  and 
not  merely  through  ' '  slight,  successive,  favor- 
able variations, ' '  as  Darwin  held.  This  doc- 
trine showed  by  experiment  that  generation 
of  the  individual  can  make  a  leap  at  once  into 
a  new  species,  not  merely  repeating  the  parent 
with  a  little  difference.  Thus  the  germ-cell 
has  in  it  untold  possibilities,  seemingly  all 
the  past  of  the  organic  world  from  the  begin- 
ning; it  embraces  potentially  the  totality  of 
all  Life,  plant  and,  animal.  That  primordial 
germ-cell,  issuing  from  the  first  living  stuff 
(Protobioticon)  and  individuating  itself,  per- 
chance as  the  primal  plant-animal  (phyto- 
zoon),  contains  implicitly  all  the  organic 
forms  to  be  evolved  in  the  ages  to  come,  and 
is  still  preserved  and  transmitted  in  the  gen- 
erative process  of  the  organism.  The  chief  in- 


BEFORE  DARWIN  AND  AFTER. 


terest  of  the  doctrine  of  De  Vries  is  that  the 
original  germ-cell  can  break  out  of  its  fixed 
mold  transmitted  from  parent  to  child,  and 
become  a  member  of  a  new  order;  it  can  de- 
velop of  a  sudden  the  potentialities  that  have 
been  suppressed  hitherto  by  the  regular  norm 
of  the  organism  for  uncounted  ages.  De  Vries 
has  shown  that  even  the  plant  can  turn  revo- 
lutionist and  defy  its  traditional  limits  (see 
preceding  p.  199),  following  some  hereditary 
instinct  of  vegetal  freedom.  The  question 
rises  :  Will  man  ever  be  able  to  reach  and  con- 
trol this  tendency  to  mutation  or  sudden"trans- 
formation  which  lurks  in  every  organism, 
seemingly  in  the  very  act  of  its  generation! 
This  would  indeed  be  the  new  metamorphosis 
of  living  Nature,  when  we  can  tap  the  original 
fountain  of  Life,  and  make  it  develop  what 
organic  shapes  we  choose,  instead  of  leaving 
them  to  blind  impulse. 

The  doctrine  of  germinal  continuity  set 
forth  by  Weismann  is  a  great  and  fruitful 
thought  at  which  biology  is  still  working.  To 
it  we  would  conjoin  the  doctrine  of  De  Vries 
which  makes  the  germ-cell  the  arena  of  sudden 
catastophic  changes  which  appear  to  be  the 
bursting  forth  into  reality  of  long-inherited 
ancestral  tendencies  previously  submerged. 
Every  plant  and  animal,  yea  every  living 
genetic  cell  contains  the  possibilities  of  the 
total  Biocosmos. 


468  THE  BIOC08M08— HISTORICAL. 

The  third  considerable  name  in  the  post- 
Darwinian  evolution  of  Biology  is    that    of 
Gregor  Mendel  (1822-1884),  an  Austrian  monk 
of  Briinn.    His  chief  experiment  was  to  take 
two  pure  breeds  of  peas,  of  different  colors 
and  shapes  and  lengths,  and  by  cross-fertili- 
zation to  produce  a  hybrid  pea.     Now  this 
hybrid  would  have  the  characteristic  of  onc« 
parent  present,  while  that  of  the  other  parent 
was  absent.    Here  Mendel  had  the  insight  to 
give  names  to  these  two  derived  characteris- 
tics, one  of  which  he  called  dominant,  the  other 
recessive.    But  what  has  become  of  that  char- 
acteristic which  has  disappeared?     Is  it  de- 
stroyed?    Not  by  any  means;  to  show  this 
fact  was  the  next  step  in  the  experiment  of 
Mendel.    He  took  the  hybrid  and  raised  from 
it  alone  a  new  crop  of  peas,  which  was  divided 
between  the  two  ancestors  in  a  certain  pro- 
portion.   Thus  the  suppressed  (or  recessive) 
characteristics  of  the  hybrid  again  appear  in 
its  progeny,  part  of  which  follow  one  grand- 
parent, part  the  ofher.    That  is,  after  the  re- 
cession of  parental  traits,  there  is  the  recur- 
rence of  them  in  the  new  generation,  a  return 
and  restoration  to  the  original  sources.    This 
stage  we  cannot  find  named  specially  by  Men- 
del, though  fully  described  by  him;  we  may 
call  it  the  recurrent.    Thus  the  hybrid  repro- 
duced itself  doubly  in  its  offspring,  alternat- 


BEFORE  DARWIN  AND  AFTER.      4(59 

ing  between  the  two  ancestors  (the  so-called 
alternative  inheritance) ;  also  there  is  the  sep- 
aration or  disociation  of  characters  in  the 
germ-cell,  each  of  which  can  be  transmitted 
(sometimes  named  unit-characters).  In  this 
case  there  is  a  new  approach  to  that  primal 
act  of  Life,  namely,  living  individuation ;  each 
characteristic  of  the  pea  is  individuated  in  the 
genetic  cell  and  asserts  itself  sooner  or  later. 
What  constitutes  or  causes  these  unit-charac- 
ters is  not  known ;  some  say  they  spring  from 
a  chemical,  others  from  a  mechanical  change 
at  the  source.  But  what  we  are  to  grasp  first  is 
the  Mendelian  round  of  heredity :  dominance, 
recession,  recurrence.  The  last  term  involves 
the  persistence  of  the  unit-character;  though 
it  may  be  for  a  time  only  potential,  it  can  be- 
come real,  doubtless  suddenly  so  (as  in  the 
examples  of  mutation  given  by  De  Vries). 

Mendel  continued  his  experimentation  on 
this  double  offspring  of  the  hybrid;  he  found 
that  each  side-  afterward  bred  its  own  kind, 
yet  with  some  exceptions.  Moreover,  not  a 
little  depends  on  what  characteristic  is  select- 
ed for  trial — color,  shape,  stalk,  seed?  etc.  All 
qualities  are  not  always  transmitted  alike.  It 
is  a  significant  fact  that  though  Mendel's  re- 
sults were  first  communicated  to  the  Briinn 
Academy  of  Science  in  1865  and  published  the 
following  year,  they  were  without  the  least 


470  THE  BIOCOSMOS— HISTORICAL. 

response  from  the  scientific  world,  which  was 
then  digesting  Darwin's  book.  Mendel,  a  con- 
temporary of  Darwin,  enunciated  a  doctrine, 
which  was  to  find  its  place  not  only  after  Dar- 
win, but  after  the  two  chief  post-Darwinians, 
Weismann  and  De  Vries.  It  was  mainly  the 
latter  who  about  the  year  1900  re-discovered 
and  resurrected  Mendel's  work,  which  is  in 
general  complementary  to  his  own.  At  the 
present  time  the  Mendelian  movement  would 
seem  to  be  uppermost  in  biology,  and  has 
called  forth  or  at  least  confirmed  a  new  de- 
partment of  it,  or  a  new  science  perchance, 
which  now  goes  under  the  name  of  Genetics, 
So  it  comes  that  an  Austrian  monk,  a  celibate, 
has  given  to  science  the  epoch-making  idea 
Of  generation,  to  which  by  his  vow  he  might 
be  supposed  to  be  unfriendly.  Also  he  was 
ahead  of  his  time  which  had  to  evolve  up  to 
him  before  he  could  be  appreciated. 

Accordingly  in  the  succession  after  Darwin 
we  put  together  three  leading  names — Weis- 
mann?  De  Vries,  Mendel.  They  all  contributed 
to  explain  the  genesis  of  the  living  individual. 
Each  of  them  in  his  own  way  dealt  with  that 
persistent  germ-cell  which  has  the  power  of 
continuing  itself  in  a  line  of  transitory  indi- 
vidual shapes  through  time.  Thus  in  the  or- 
ganism there  is  suggested  an  immortal  and  a 
mortal  part.  Germinal  continuity,  in  its  full 


BEFORE  DARWIN  AND  AFTER.  471 

acceptation,  is  to  be  regarded  as  having  the 
duration  of  Earth-life,  with  which  it  begins 
and  ends.  It  is  a  kind  of  string  on  which  has 
been  strung  and  will  be  strung  all  living  forms 
from  the  first  terrestrial  Life  to  the  last. 
Moreover,  each  individuated  germ-cell  is  a 
very  complex  thing,  bearing  in  itself  thou- 
sands of  transmitted  characters,  each  of  which 
is  declared  to  be  a  unit  in  itself  and  may  rise 
to  the  surface  in  heredity. 

Using  terms  already  employed  (180)  we 
observe  that  the  organism  manifests  all  three 
kinds  of  genesis,  Homogenesis  (like  produces 
like),  Heterogenesis  (like  produces  unlike — 
De  Vries) ;  to  these  we  may  add  the  Darwin- 
ian doctrine  of  Homoiogenesis  (like  produces 
similar).  These  doctrines  often  held  separ- 
ately, are  seen  to  be  united  in  the.Mendelian 
experiments.  That  is,  an  organism  may  pro- 
duce all  three  kinds — likes,  unlikes,  and  simi- 
lars. (See  a  very  striking  colored  illustra- 
tion of  this  fact  in  Prof.  Bateson's  work  on 
Mendel's  Principles  of  Heredity,  in  the  flower 
Primula  Sinensis,  which  by  crossing  is  made 
to  show  vividly  the  Mendelian  process — domi- 
nance, recession,  and  recurrence — and  also  in- 
dicates by  unique  coloration  of  various 
shades  the  three  kinds  of  genesis — like,  un- 
like, and  similar,  (pp.  294-5.) 

The  chief  interest  here  is  to  observe  the 


472  THE  BIOCOSMOS— HISTORICAL. 

many  possibilities  lurking  in  the  transmitted 
germ-cell,  which  under  right  conditions  spring 
into  reality.  In  Mendelism  a  submerged  world 
of  inheritance  is  uncovered  and  made  to  ap- 
pear. The  individual  is  shown  to  have  a 
varied  power  of  procreation  transmitted  from 
the  ancestors.  Variation  is  not  merely  con- 
tinuous,  but  discontinuous,  to  use  a  term  of 
the  Mendelians.  Doubtless  every  sexed  indi- 
vidual is  a  hybrid  more  or  less  composite  and 
is  made  up  of  inherited  unit-characters  thou- 
sandfold, and  so  may  beget  individuals  spe- 
cifically different  from  itself.  The  more  com- 
plete and  higher  the  evolution,  the  more  com- 
plex and  diversified  is  the  product;  hence  we 
have  to  think  that  the  most  developed  organ- 
ism has  in  it  the  potentialities  of  the  widest 
variation.  Man,  even  if  he  does  not  produce 
the  greatest  diversity  of  shape  and  color,  pro- 
duces the  greatest  inner  diversity  of  char- 
acter in  a  single  natural  species.  No  telling 
what  may  break  up^  from  that  underworld  of 
generations.  Still  behind  all  this  varied  play 
of  individuals  we  have  to  keep  asking  whence 
comes  this  power  of  individuation,  and  what 
is  its  place  in  the  All.  Ultimately  the  germ- 
cell,  however  small,  is  the  potential  universe 
in  its  creative  process. 


RETROSPECT  AND  PROSPECT.       473 


III.  EETROSPECT  AND  PROSPECT. 

The  attempt  to  see  Nature  in  her  totality 
and  to  probe  for  her  central  principle,  is  an 
old  one ;  but  such  a  search  has  fluctuated  with 
the  ages.  It  may  be  said  that  Philosophy  be- 
gan with  the  Philosophy  of  Nature  in  the  old 
Greek  philosophers  (hence  they  were  called 
physiologoi).  The  genius  of  Darwin  has  been 
designated  as  biocosmical,  being  confined  to 
the  province  of  Life;  Newton  on  the  other 
hand  was  cosmical  in  his  greatest  work.  One 
of  the  noteworthy  modern  attempts  to  present 
Nature  as  a  whole  was  that  of  Humboldt  in 
his  so-called  Cosmos.  Hegel  in  his  Philos- 
ophy of  Nature  took  a  still  bolder  flight,  seek- 
ing to  synthesize  the  natural  and  the  spiritual 
world,  wherein  he  connects  with  ancient  Aris- 
totle. Hegel  in  spite  of  his  heavy  and  often 
forced  formalism  has  many  excellent  thoughts 
about  Nature;  his  book  has  been  lashed  by 
modern  German  scientists  with  bitter  vituper- 
ation, still  we  dare  confess  that  we  find  in  it 
a  deeper  view  of  Nature  than  in  Humboldt  ?s 
work.  Particularly  the  part  on  Organic  Life, 
though  in  many  details  it  is  far  behind  the 
science  of  today,  has  in  it  thoughts  and  dis- 
tinctions which  are  truly  universal  and  hence 
valid  for  all  time.  Still  we  shall  agree  that 


474  THE  BIOCOSMOS— HISTORICAL. 

the  new  Aristotle  is  the  great  synthetic  genius 
who  is  wanted,  who  will  unify  the  present 
deeply  specialized  and  divided  Natural 
Science  and  then  correlate  it  with  the  Uni- 
verse of  which  Nature  is  but  a  stage  or  part. 
Till  such  an  universal  organizer  appears,  we 
shall  have  to  swash  about  at  random  in  the 
ocean  of  particulars,  with  which  the  experi- 
mental scientist  is  deluging  us  from  every 
direction. 

We  have  now  briefly  set  forth  not  only  Evo- 
lution but  the  evolver  of  Evolution,  yea  a  line 
of  such  evolvers,  which  line  is  itself  an  Evolu- 
tion, or  a  history.  That  is,  Evolution  to  be 
true  to  its  own  principle,  must  also  evolve.- 
Biology  has  to  be  studied,  but  with  it  the  biol- 
ogist biologizing.  In  him  we  behold  the  mind 
evolving  in  itself  and  also  as  evolutionary  in 
doctrine.  The  reader  is  thus  to  appropriate 
the  Biocosmos  as  a  whole,  which  embraces  not 
only  the  science  of  Life,  but  also  the  scientist, 
who  certainly  ought  not  to  be  left  out  of  his 
own  work.  To  be  'sure  we  here  come  upon 
the  Ego  which  itself  has  evolved  up  to  the 
point  of  turning  back  and  grasping  Evolution 
which  is  really  its  own  Evolution,  whereof  it 
becomes  conscious. 

Mind,  Consciousness,  Ego — such  is  the  new 
world  which  has  now  come  into  view,  and 
which  has  been  more  or  less  implicit  in  the 


RETROSPECT  AND  PROSPECT.       475 

living  thing  from  the  beginning.  But  when 
it  becomes  fully  explicit  and  works  in  its  own 
right,  active  in  itself  and  self-creative,  we 
have  not  only  transcended  the  Biocosmos,  but 
the  entire  realm  of  Nature.  The  soul  now 
has  its  own  body,  not  that  of  matter — nay,  it 
can  in  its  way  reproduce  its  own  body,  and 
does  so  in  every  conscious  act. 

Still  the  chasm  between  Life  and  Conscious- 
ness remains  impassable  by  science ;  no  micro- 
scope can  see  and  describe  the  conscious  act, 
which  must  see  and  describe  itself.  A.  self- 
seeing  microscope  has  not  yet  been  invented; 
in  fact  it  is  just  that  which  invents  micro- 
scopes. In  previous  chapters  we  have  often 
noted  the  gap  between  Unlife  and  Life,  that 
transition  from  the  Inorganic  to  the  Organic. 
But  having  taken  Life  and  observed  its  va- 
rious evolutionary  stages,  we  have  reached 
the  second  scientifically  impassable  limit, 
which  lies  between  vital  and  mental  action. 
The  Biocosmos  is,  accordingly,  bounded  defi- 
nitely at  beginning  and  end  by  science-defying 
barriers.  As  Chemism  would  not  go  over  into 
Life,  so  Life  refuses  to  turn  into  Mind.  Still, 
if  looking  at  the  evolution  of  our  planet,  we 
have  to  postulate  the  transition  from  Unlife 
to  Life,  so  likewise  we  have  to  postulate  the 
transition  from  Life  to  Consciousness.  Where 
and  how  man  first  "broke  through  into  his  self- 


476  THE  BIOCOSMOS— HISTORICAL. 

knowing  Self,  is  a  matter  of  conjectnre;  but 
we  observe  that  every  human  infant  has  to 
go  through  the  same  process.  (See  preced- 
ing p.  47.) 

If  we  consider  more  closely  the  foregoing 
transition,  we  shall  take  Generation  as  the 
highest  process  of  Nature,  and  regard  it  in 
its  relation  to  Consciousness.  The  halfness 
of  the  sexed  individual  rises  to  be  the  whole- 
ness of  the  Ego;  every  human  being  is  an 
entire  self  within  himself,  we  may  say, "  an 
image  of  the  All-Self ;  but  only  a  moiety  he  is 
as  male  or  female,  both  of  which  are  Nature 's 
sides  of  a  higher  totality  in  which  both  are  to 
participate  together.,  Germinal  continuity 
of  the  race,  which  may  be  said  to  be  the  lead- 
ing theme  of  present  biology,  is  not  through 
one  but  through  both;  the  dualism  of  Nature, 
manifested  at  its  highest  point  in  the  sexes, 
must  be  overcome,  even  momentarily,  that  it 
continue ;  the  two  sexed  individuals  are  to 
become  one  that  they  may  persist  as  two 
through  generation.  The  dialectic  of  Nature 
can  be  heard  in  the  statement  that  sex  must 
transcend  sex  in  order  to  exist  as  sex;  or  the 
supreme  dualism  of  Nature  has  to  be  unified 
that  it  be  dual.  Now  Consciousness  has  this 
dualism,  present  also,  but  perpetually  over- 
coming and  overcome ;  the  two  sides  we  desig- 
nate with  new  names,  subject  and  object, 


RETROSPECT  AND  PROSPECT.       477 

which  are  always  dualizing,  yet  also  always 
unifying  in  one  process  (the  Psychosis).  Thus 
the  individual  as  Ego  is  eternally  self-propa- 
gating, making  and  remaking  himself  in  cease- 
less process ;  this  self-generation  does  not  fall 
outside  of  himself  into  another  Egoy  but  is 
within  himself,  is  indeed  his  own  self-creativ- 
ity and  source  of  all  other  creativity  of  the 
self.  Creation  of  the  body  and  creation  of  the 
mind  have  long  been  felt  as  intimately  related ; 
in  fact  they  bear  the  same  name  in  human 
speech.  The  genetic  process  of  the  Ego  (as 
we  may  call  it  in  this  connection)  produces 
the  internal  individual,  while  the  genetic  pro- 
cess of  the  organism  throws  out  the  external 
individual  through  indefinite  repetition  with- 
out self-return — wherein  is  seen  the  outer  in- 
dividuation  of  Nature.  Now  this  outer  indi- 
viduation  of  Nature  is  what  will  become  in- 
ternal in  the  Ego  which  is  such  self-division 
within  itself,  and  also  the  self-unification. 
Looked  at  from  this  point  of  view,  Conscious- 
ness may  be  deemed  the  self-sexing  of  the  in- 
dividual and  the  overcoming  of  the  same  in 
the  one  process;  but  such  an  individual  is 
no  longer  merely  natural,  but  an  Ego,  which 
has  the  power  of  individuating  itself  eter- 
nally, whose  self-begetting  is  just  its  being. 
On  the  other  hand  the  Ego  has  risen  to  be 
the  very  image  and  personation  of  the  ere- 


478  THE  BIOCOSMOS— HISTORICAL. 

ative  principle  of  the  Universe  which  we  have 
often  called  the  All-Ego.  The  individual  now 
re-enacts  and  indeed  recreates  the  universal 
Self;  so  far  has  that  primal  individuation  of 
Nature  unfolded  till  this  has  individuated  the 
very  All  in  its  primordial  process.  That  is, 
the  natural  individual  has  evolved  to  the  point 
where  it  is  the  bearer  of  the  Universal,  or  of 
the  essential  movement  of  the  Universe.  To 
use  our  technical  terms,  through  the  long  tra- 
vail of  Nature  the  Psychosis  has  risen  till  it 
has  become  the  pure  reflection  of  the  self- 
creative  Pampsychosis  as  the  supreme  genetic 
act  of  the  All.  Such  is  the  high  origin  of  Con- 
sciousness on  the  one  hand,  and  such  is  its  low 
origin  on  the  other.  Consciousness  results 
from  and  in  fact  embraces  the  vast  experience 
of  Evolution  from  the  beginning  of  Nature, 
till  it  can  evolve  Evolution  out  of  itself.  Con- 
sciousness is  given  from  above,  yet  it  has  had 
to  win  this  gift  of  itself  by  the  toil  of  aeons. 
So  it  is  its  own,  yet  also  the  Universe's;  on 
one  side  it  is  the  created,  but  it  must  forever 
recreate  its  creation ;  if  it  be  truly  God-made, 
it  must  itself  make  God,  or  rather  re-make 
Him;  else  He  could  not  have  being  for  it. 
The  Ego  has  gained  its  autonomy  through  a 
long  service  to  Nature,  yet  it  had  to  be  en- 
dowed with  this  capacity  to  serve  for  its  au- 
tonomy, which  service  has  been  just  its  disci- 


RETROSPECT  AND  PROSPECT.      479 

pline  unto  perfection.  To  be  a  self-conscious 
being  is,  therefore,  a  very  high  attainment,  the 
steps  toward  which  we  can  see  all  the  way 
down  the  ladder  of  Nature  from  the  start.  The 
Ego  is  created  by  the  Creator  to  create  itself, 
and  so  it  is  like  to  the  Creator.  It  passes 
through  the  stages  of  determined  existence  in 
order  to  reach  the  self-determined.  Its  God- 
given  gift  of  freedom  it  must  earn  through  a 
long  training  of  unf  reedom  in  order  to  possess 
such  a  gift.  That  training  we  may  follow 
through  all  the  steps  of  Evolution.  The  ex- 
perience of  all  Nature's  unf  reedom  the  Ego 
must  get  in  order  to  surmount  the  same  and 
to  attain  its  freedom,  or  its  own  inner  self- 
active  consciousness. 

Using  another  set  of  terms,  we  may  recur  to 
the  conception  of  Physis  and  Psyche,  as  ex- 
pressing the  pervasive  dualism  of  Nature.  But 
when  Psyche  becomes  self-dividing  and  self- 
returning  in  one,  or  self-individuating  within 
itself,  it  declares  its  independence  of  Physis, 
even  if  it  recognizes  its  former  dependence, 
and  finally  accepts  and  even  formulates  its 
previous  evolution  in,  with,  and  out  of  Physis. 
In  its  new  freedom  Psyche  can  return  not  only 
upon  its  free  self,  but  also  upon  its  unfree  self 
and  observe  its  process  toward  its  (psychic) 
freedom.  Thus  it  becomes  a  perpetual  self- 
reproduction  as  the  essence  of  its  own  self- 


480  THE  BIOCOSMOS— HISTORICAL. 

hood;  it  is  indeed  self -generative,  still  not  as 
particular  like  Nature,  but  as  universal;  it 
must  create  itself  universally  along  with  every 
special  activity,  and  so  be  Consciousness. 

With  this  evolution  of  Consciousness  we 
have  moved  out  of  Nature  into  a  new  world 
having  a  new  order.  Therewith  we  have  also 
moved  into  a  new  science,  that  of  the  Ego,  or 
of  Psychology  proper.  The  Ego  as  conscious 
has  the  ever-present  process  of  the  Universe 
in  each  of  its  special  activities ;  surely  its  deep- 
est character  is  to  universalize  what  it  par- 
ticularizes, or  to  hold  in  one  supreme  unity 
that  which  it  grasps  separately.  Thus  we  may 
see  that  the  true  science  of  Psychology  is  the 
universal  science,  being  the  science  which  or- 
ganizes itself  and  all  other  knowledge — self- 
ordering  and  all-ordering  in  one.  (For  an  ac- 
count of  Consciousness  see  our  work  on  Feel- 
ing, pp.  CV-CX,  of  the  Prolegomena;  also  in 
the  body  of  the  work?  p.  132,  etc.) 

We  have  now  completed  this  survey  of  Na- 
ture and  its  science.  Its  three  leading  stages 
or  divisions  of  which  we  took  a  brief  forecast 
at  the  start  have  been  unfolded  under  the  des- 
ignations of  Cosmos,  Diacosmos,  and  Biocos- 
mos.  And  Nature  also  has  been  treated  as  a 
stage  in  the  process  of  the  Universe,  reaching 
its  culmination  and  conclusion  in  Generation, 
from  which  we  have  to  make  in  thought  the 


RETROSPECT  AND  PROSPECT. 


leap,  non-scientific  as  yet,  to  the  conscious 
Ego,  which  not  only  knows  itself,  but  has 
come  to  know  itself  as  evolutionary.  This 
impress  is  what  it  stamps  at  present  upon  all 
knowledge,  making  science  along  with  itself 
evolutionary.  Such  is  not  only  the  individual 
consciousness  of  today  but  also  the  associated 
or  public  consciousness. 

So  we  are  to  make,  in  our  thinking  at  least, 
the  transition  from  Nature  's  Evolution  to  the 
Ego's  Evolution  —  from  an  outer  physical  to 
an  inner  conscious  Evolution.  And  we  may 
add  that  each  Ego,  as  a  self-evolving  individ- 
ual within  himself,  is  to  associate  with  other 
Egos,  in  that  new  kind  of  body,  called  the  In- 
stitution, which  may  at  last  include  total  hu- 
manity. For  the  outlook  now  is  that  the  race 
must  be  institutionalized  to  secure  the  ulti- 
mate freedom  of  the  individual.  To  be  sure, 
the  universal  Institution  of  Man,  be  it  politi- 
cal, religious,  social,  or  all  combined  or  some- 
thing else,  is  at  present  a  dream  ;  still  the  per- 
sistent Evolution  of  human  association  into 
ever-enlarging  forms  would  seem  to  have  some 
such  outlook  (see  preceding  pp.  50-53). 


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